Sometimes it comes down to made shots.
That plagued the Iowa basketball team on Monday as the Hawkeyes were just 3-of-16 from long range in a 69-65 loss to No. 5 Indiana.
The Hawkeyes battled throughout, erasing multiple eight-point deficits and played the preseason No. 1 team to the final seconds but ran out of gas late in the loss.
Iowa junior Zach McCabe missed an open 3-pointer with just less than 30 seconds to go and then missed two other triples in the closing seconds as Iowa fell to 11-3 overall and 0-1 in Big Ten action.
The Hoosiers got strong efforts from Victor Oladipo, Cody Zeller and Will Sheehey and improved to 13-1 on the season.
Oladipo did everything for Indiana as he led the team in scoring and guarded Iowa’s hottest scorers. He also made the bucket of the game with 14 seconds to play as he converted a putback on a Zeller air ball to put the Hoosiers up five.
Aaron White, Roy Devyn Marble and Mike Gesell all finished in double-figures for Iowa, but the Hawkeyes fell short of the upset in a front of a sell-out crowd at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
The Hawkeyes trailed by eight at the break as a combination of poor shooting and spotty defense led to the deficit. Iowa made just 8-of-34 in the first 20 minutes and let Indiana’s guard penetrate into the lane way too much.
It won’t get any easier for the Hawkeyes, who next play at No. 2 Michigan before hosting nationally ranked Michigan State.
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