With Iowa ahead 55-52, MSU needed a stop to get the ball back for a chance to tie the game. Iowa guard Kachine Alexander, who assisted on the go-ahead bucket and got the rebound when MSU missed, clanked a jumper but got her own rebound, forcing MSU to foul. She salted away the game with four free throws down the stretch.

Alexander’s offensive rebound was one of 15 for the Hawkeyes on the day — leading to 19 second-chance points — as Iowa creamed the Spartans on the boards 37-30.

“It wasn’t there,” senior center Lauren Aitch said of the rebounding. “Usually our rebounding is one of our strong points, and tonight we just didn’t have that focus.”

There it is. Sometimes that lost focus has manifested itself in a long scoring drought. Other times it’s been turnovers. On that day, it showed up in the rebounding.

What’s tough to fathom is that Iowa, the only team to beat the Spartans in their last 13 games, outrebounded MSU by 10 in the first meeting between the two teams. It’s hard to believe a team would lose focus against a team that embarrassed them on the boards so badly the first time out. Even though the Spartans are bigger and should be the better rebounding team (and, statistically, were all season), Iowa finds ways to get it done, and that should not have come as a surprise to the players.

“That was an entire game where I felt like we just could not get a defensive rebound for whatever reason,” MSU head coach Suzy Merchant said. “And you have to give Iowa credit for really hustling after them and taking advantage of maybe us not doing the job and chasing down opportunities and then taking advantage and scoring.”

This lack of focus is a bothersome thing for a team heading into the NCAA Tournament. If it hasn’t been addressed by the team yet, it needs to be.

Maybe this is the wake-up call the team needs heading into the Big Dance to not let this happen again. It’s one thing to be beaten by a superior team, which could very likely happen in the NCAA Tournament. It’s another thing completely to beat yourself. MSU allowed 59 points against Iowa. That’s it. Fifty-nine measly points. More than enough to win.

“We’re definitely disappointed,” junior guard Brittney Thomas said. “We came in here with a goal of taking the whole thing. To be one game away, it’s frustrating. It really came down to rebounding. I think we did a good job defensively to keep it a low scoring game. They’re going to score. You’ve got to answer them. That was the type of game it was. The score seemed like it was the game that we wanted, but they started getting O-boards at the right time and putting buckets in.”

Now the team stands with the NCAA Tournament in front of it. A chance to redeem itself for the failures of the Big Ten Tournament. What the team needs is a consistent effort night-in and night-out. When this team is rolling, it gets going. Merchant has said many times that effort and details beats talent every time. MSU has been on both sides of that equation this season, and it’s a mantra it needs to recommit to to have any chance of success in the NCAA Tournament.

Matt Bishop is the State News women’s basketball reporter. He can be reached at bishop20@msu.edu