Rutgers men’s basketball loses offensive showdown to Iowa

The Rutgers men’s basketball team fell to Iowa 93-82 today. The Hawkeyes (13-8, 5-5) scored 93 points, which is the most points that a team has scored against the Scarlet Knights (14-7, 6-4) all season.

Rutgers started out strong and led Iowa 8-2 in the first 4 minutes of play. After the first media timeout, the Hawkeyes fought back, and the game was tied 29-29 with just over five minutes left to play in the first half.

In those final minutes of the half, Iowa scored 16 points and took a 45-34 lead into halftime. For the Knights, senior guard Paul Mulcahy had a strong first half, scoring 9 points and dishing out four assists. Patrick McCaffrey played his first game since the new year and scored his first basket in the first half.

The offense for Rutgers kicked into high gear in the second half, but its usually vaunted defense continued to struggle against the Hawkeyes' offense. With the Knights down 10 and just under 10 minutes remaining, Rutgers went on a 9-0 scoring run in just less than 90 seconds to cut its deficit to 1 point.

That would be the closest that the Knights got to evening the score as Iowa quickly reestablished its lead, creating an 11-point difference by the end of the game.

Junior forward Aundre Hyatt had another strong game. Hyatt led the team in scoring with 16 points and shot 4-7 from beyond the arc. Mulcahy also played well in the loss, getting a double-double by scoring 11 points and getting 13 assists. Fifth-year guard Caleb McConnell, on the other hand, noticeably struggled. He converted 2 of his 7 field goal attempts and scored a total of 6 points. Kris Murray led the Hawkeyes with 24 points.

Rutgers shot the ball well, shooting 50.8 percent from the field and 40 percent from three-point range. On defense though, the Knights gave Iowa many open looks and the Hawkeyes shot 43.3 percent from the field and 50 percent from beyond the arc.

Iowa also got to the free throw line 34 times and converted 29 of those attempts. Rutgers only got to the line 14 times and made 10 of those attempts.

This is the first time in two years that the Knights have allowed a conference opponent to sweep them in the regular season. Rutgers has only allowed its opponents to score more than 70 points three times this season, and two of those times have been to the Hawkeyes.

On Wednesday, the Knights will return home to take on Minnesota. The game will tip off at 7:30 p.m. and will be broadcasted on the Big Ten Network and 88.7 WRSU-FM.

"Can’t turn the ball over 18 times against a team like this that can score like that, and they really had it going," said head coach Steve Pikiell. "(Coach McCaffery) does a great job, and (Iowa) has a lot of weapons. We didn’t stop Kris Murray, (the Hawkeyes) got to the free-throw line. We turned the ball over way too many times, too."