Iowa falls at #8 Creighton
Tuesday was the first big test for the Iowa basketball team. For the first twenty minutes of action, the Hawkeyes went toe to toe with the 8th ranked Creighton Blue Jays. But a flurry to start to the second half from Creighton proved to be the difference in a 92-84 loss in Omaha.
With the loss, Iowa falls to 2-1 on the season. Creighton moves to 3-0 to start the year. Iowa was paced by graduate transfer Ben Krikke. The former Valpo standout scored 24 points in the loss. He was one of four Iowa players in double figures. Meanwhile, Trey Alexander from Creighton was the best player on the floor on Tuesday night. He finished with 23 points, 11 rebounds, and fell one assist shy of a triple double.
The Hawkeyes started this game very positively. In particularly it was Kirkke who shined early on knocking down mid-range jumpers from various spots on the floor and even hit a couple of bank shots. Iowa led by seven, 22-15 after a Krikke jumper found the bottom of the net with 12:29 left in the first half.
Then a three pointer by freshman Ladji Dembele gave the Hawkeyes a 25-20 edge with 11:08 left in the half. But, Creighton was determined to make a run and they did, scoring the next seven points to take a two point lead with 9:55 remaining in the half.
The runs started for both teams as Iowa scored the next six points and the Blue Jays responded with the next seven to lead 34-31 with just over five minutes left in the first half. The breakneck pace started to slow at that point and both teams traded baskets and were knotted up 43 at the break.
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Both teams traded baskets to start the second half before Creighton went on an 8-0 run, fueled by back to back three point field goals from Baylor Scheierman and Alexander, followed by a layup from Ryan Kalkbrenner to push their lead to 53-45. The lead grew to 12 on a Kalbrenner fast break dunk.
Following a three pointer from Francisco Farabello, the lead grew to 17 points, 80-63, with 9:17 left in the game. But, Iowa wasn’t quite done for the night. Iowa put together a quick 7-0 run, finishing with an Owen Freeman layup, to cut the lead to ten.
The lead lingered in that ten point range for a several minutes before a stepback three point by Tony Perkins found the bottom of the net and Patrick McCaffery slammed home a dunk to cut the lead to five. But, that was as close as Iowa would get on this evening.
Iowa will be back in action on Friday evening at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. They will play host to Arkansas State with tipoff set for 7:00 p.m.
