One week after defeating Oakland in an epic overtime game at The Palace, No. 1 MSU (13-1, 0-1 Big Ten) could not find its shooting stroke Tuesday night against the Iowa Hawkeyes (10-3, 1-0 Big Ten) as they lost 83-70. The Spartans did not lead the entire game and senior guard Denzel Valentine missed his second consecutive game with a knee injury.
Iowa was led by senior guard Mike Gesell who scored a career-high 25 points and junior guard Peter Jok who added 19 points. Junior guard Eron Harris was the leading scorer for MSU scoring 21 points, while senior Matt Costello scored 17 points and had seven rebounds.
MSU hung tough with Iowa early on, and when Iowa star Jarrod Uthoff had to leave the game about six and a half minutes into the first half with Iowa leading 14-13, MSU had an opportunity to attack.
Nevertheless, Iowa would go on a 23-10 run to end the first half, led by freshmen forward Nicolas Baer, who had 9 points in the first half and 11 for the game. Baer also had a number of hustle plays off the bench, including a transition block on a Matt McQuaid three pointer in transition and stealing the ball from McQuaid for a layup.
MSU shot 0-5 in the first half from three, shooting only 3-13 for the game from the perimeter, and scored a season low 23 points in the first half, as they were outscored 17-6 in bench points and turned the ball over 11 times in the first half.
The lone bright spot for MSU in the first half might have been the play of freshmen forward Deyonta Davis, who made an immediate impact when he entered the game. Davis blocked three shots and soared for a huge dunk off of an offensive rebound. Davis finished the game with six points and two rebounds.
Senior guard Bryn Forbes struggled heavily in the first game since he scored a career 32 points against Oakland, as he could only manage three points on 1-for-5 shooting from the floor, including 0-3 from beyond the 3-point arc.
MSU came out with much more energy in the second half, but Iowa's hot shooting quickly built the lead up to 19 point lead at 58-39, and every time MSU made a run at Iowa, Iowa had an answer.
MSU might have know tonight was not going to be their night when junior guard Alvin Ellis III tipped a ball into their own hoop on an Iowa out of bounds play which extended Iowa's lead to 41-28 Iowa.
MSU cut the lead to 10 points with just over six minutes to play in the game, but Iowa answered with a 6-0 run to effectively end all comeback hopes for MSU.
Two of MSU best assets on the season, scoring and scoring defense were both lacking, as MSU shot only 43.5 percent from the floor, including 23.1 percent from three and only 65 percent from the free throw line. Meanwhile, Iowa shot 48.2 percent from the field, as well as shooting 46.2 percent from three.
MSU averaged 49.2 percent from the floor and 40.1 percent from three on the season, while they have only allowed opponants to shoot 35.3 percent from the field and 26.5 percent from three.
Up next, MSU will head to Minnesota for a date with the Golden Gophers on Jan. 2, 2016 with tip set for 3 p.m. on ESPN2.
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