Outside of a five-minute run late in the first half, Indiana struggled offensively all day against Iowa on Saturday and lost 74-57 at Assembly Hall. It was their third straight loss, with two of them coming at home.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana's offense was humming. Passes were crisp, picks were sharp and many drives ended with a layup. The Hoosiers made eight shots in a row.
And it last five minutes. That was it.
Other than that 17-point outburst in the middle of the first half, Indiana's performance on Saturday against Iowa was downright putrid. The Hoosiers got walloped at home 74-57 to an Iowa teams that's in the same shoes. New coach, new roster, trying to find their way.
Iowa (13-5, 3-4 in then Big Ten) looked like they knew what they were doing. Indiana (12-6, 3-4) did not.
Outside of that one run, the Hoosiers shot just 12-of-44 from the field, a disappointing 27.3 percent in losing their third straight game, including two at home after opening the season with a 10-game home winning streak. And it doesn't any easier, with a Tuesday night meeting at No. 4 Michigan up next.
The Hoosiers got off to a terribly slow start, scoring only eight points in the first 10 minutes. They battled their way back, cutting the Iowa lead to four (49-45) with 11:13 to go. But then Iowa went on a 17-3 run to blow the game open, and their lead got all the way to 22 points in the final few minutes.
A rout.
"For a good portion of the game, I thought Iowa did a good job of making our movements tough and being physical with them,'' Indiana coach Darian DeVries said. "We didn't get into our actions very well. For us, when our offense is good, we get a lot of movement, a lot of cutting, a lot of action.
"It probably comes back to a little bit of that fatigue as they get tired or movement gets less. We've got to be able to fight through that a little bit better.''
About the only thing that worked for Indiana on the offensive side was Tayton Conerway attacking downhill. He was able to get into the lane and score on layups. He finished with 17 points, and center Sam Alexis added 13. Leading scorer Lamar Wilkerson had only 9 points and Tucker DeVries had just seven.
Indiana's bench had just nine points in a combined 47 minutes. They were just 1-for-8 from the field.
DeVries blamed the Hoosiers' second-half skid on fatigue. THat's been happening often. Indiana has been outscored by 36 points in the second half during the three-game losing streak. They blew a 16-point lead against Nebraska, were outscored 31-9 in the final 11 minutes in the loss to Michigan State and had that bad stretch again Saturday against Iowa.
"It's been pretty similar, and we've got to figure out a way to get a little more rest probably for those guys,'' DeVries said. "As we get into the middle of the second half, there's 10, 12 minutes to go — and it's been consistent the last three games — we look fatigued. That's where some of that maybe sloppiness and the turnovers, and that's where you start to see some of that showing up.
"It's something we talked about a good amount with the foul trouble and stuff. Where do you get some of those, especially the guard minutes, from when one of them goes out? It certainly showed up again today.''
Conerway didn't agree with his coach, and didn't want to blame fatigue.
"I don't know if it's fatigue. I think it's more of just the one-two, and it's something we're going to have to figure out,'' Conerway said. "If we want to win, it's something we're going to have to do.
"We're definitely getting back in there, coming out the second half and throwing that first punch is something we're going to do.''
Indiana's defense wasn't very good, either. Iowa point guard Bennett Stirtz scored 27 points and Tavian Banks had a career-high 26 points. The Hawkeyes made 21 of 23 free throws, with Banks going 9 for 9 and Stirtz making 10 of 11.