IOWA CITY, Iowa —
For 20 minutes on Wednesday, Indiana State showed the nation why it earned a National Invitation Tournament bid.
For the last 20 minutes, the Sycamores showed why they lost seven of their last nine games.
After controlling parts of the first half, ISU trailed by one at halftime, but its second-half inability to prevent mistakes ensured that its season would come to an end. Iowa won 68-52 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
“We didn’t contest them as well in the second half as we did in the first half. It came down to us defensively again. It’s something we have to fix or we’re never going to accomplish anything,” ISU forward R.J. Mahurin said.
Justin Gant led ISU with 16 points, but he was the only Sycamore who scored in double figures. Devyn Marble led Iowa with 24 points. Aaron White chipped in a double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds.
ISU (18-15) met its end thanks to turnovers and lack of concentration on both ends of the floor to end the first half and to start the second half.
ISU had six turnovers in the first five minutes of the second half — three by point guard Jake Odum — and Iowa took maximum advantage with a 16-4 run to put the game out of the Sycamores’ reach. ISU missed 11 of its first 14 shots in the second half.
“We were right there. We were right there with a very good team, a team that we still think we could have beat,” ISU coach Greg Lansing said. “But when you play like that, it comes down to possession basketball a lot of times and you can’t just hand them [the ball]. They are so good in transition.”
Iowa coach Fran McCaffrey was surprised the Hawkeyes could force Odum to give the ball up.
“That kid is as good a point guard as I’ve seen on film all year long. I mean that sincerely,” McCaffrey said. “I have not seen him turn it over as much as he turned it over tonight.
“We changed how we are playing ball screens with him. We pressed him a little and we played zone and man. We tried to take away his space. The other thing? We kept him off the free throw line,” McCaffrey added.
Included in ISU’s rough start to the second half was an embarrassing technical foul for having six players on the floor at the 14:20 mark. There was miscommunication between Khristian Smith, who entered the game, and Manny Arop, for whom Smith was substituting.
“It was a miscommunication between Khristian and me. It had nothing to do with the result of the game,” Arop said.
After Zach McCabe made the pair of technical foul free throws to put the Hawkeyes up by nine, he buried a pair of 3-pointers to put Iowa up 47-34.
“That was really big there in that stretch. I thought even before that, I mean, obviously, we’ve got six guys on the court. We were a little out of whack in all areas to start the second half,” Lansing said.
The Sycamores couldn’t land any punches in the second half, and once Iowa took the lead, the game was effectively over.
While the second half was nightmarish, the first half had offered promise. ISU staked itself to a 6-0 lead on the strength of two Mahurin 3-pointers, but Iowa came back and took an 11-9 lead at the 11-minute mark as the game morphed into its expected defensive grind.
The Sycamores then took the initiative. A 12-2 run propelled ISU to a 21-13 lead. Gant and Dawon Cummings provided all of the scoring during the run, Cummings on breakaways off Iowa turnovers, Gant primarily in the paint.
But after their early success, the game turned on a dime against the Sycamores. ISU led 26-18 when the Hawkeyes — who spent most of the half shooting in the 20-percent range — heated up and got more opportunities in transition. The Hawkeyes (21-12) finished the half on a 13-2 run to take a 31-30 halftime lead.
Iowa’s ability to score in transition was something that had been emphasized prior to the game..
“They got a lot of fast-break points and that was one of the main things we talked about coming in here,” Arop said. “It’s been kind of the case towards the end of the season. We haven’t been able to come through. We haven’t been able to stop things the coaches had on the scouting report.
“We had two things on our board today. We couldn’t give them transition and we had to keep them off the offensive boards [Iowa had 17 offensive rebounds]. It’s very frustrating.”
Had ISU won, it would’ve hosted a NIT game. No. 2-seeded Massachusetts was upset by No. 7-seeded Stony Brook 71-58 in another Wednesday NIT contest.
INDIANA STATE (52) — Arop 1-3 0-0 2, Mahurin 2-8 0-0 6, Gant 6-14 4-4 16, Cummings 2-6 0-0 4, Odum 2-6 0-0 5, Kitchell 0-1 0-0 0, Eitel 1-2 0-0 3, Brown 2-3 2-3 6, R.Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Burnett 1-4 4-4 6, K.Smith 2-3 0-0 4. Totals 19-50 FG, 10-11 FT, 52 TP.
IOWA (68) — Basabe 4-9 1-2 9, White 3-8 5-7 11, Woodbury 2-3 0-0 4, Marble 7-15 8-10 24, Gesell 1-5 0-0 2, Olaseni 1-2 0-2 2, Oglesby 1-3 0-0 3, Clemmons 0-0 0-0 0, Rickert 0-0 0-0 0, Denning 0-0 0-0 0, McCabe 2-8 2-2 8, Ingram 0-0 0-0 0, May 1-4 2-3 5, Stokes 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-57 FG, 18-26 FT, 68 TP.
Halftime score — Iowa 31-30. 3-point shooting — ISU 4-17 (Mahurin 2-7, Odum 1-2, Eitel 1-2, Cummings 0-3, Arop 0-1, Gant 0-1, Burnett 0-1), Iowa 6-19 (Marble 2-5, McCabe 2-5, May 1-2, Oglesby 1-2, Gesell 0-3, White 0-2). Rebounds — ISU 27 (Odum 7, Cummings 4, Gant 3, Burnett 3, Arop 2, Brown 2, Team 2, Mahurin, Kitchell, Eitel, K.Smith), Iowa 42 (White 13, Basabe 8, Marble 5, Olaseni 3, McCabe 3, Team 3, May 2, Oglesby, Clemmons). Assists — ISU 12 (Cummings 5, Odum 3, Arop, Mahurin, Eitel, Burnett), Iowa 11 (Marble 6, White, Gesell, Oglesby, McCabe, May). Steals — ISU 7 (Gant 2, Odum 2, Brown 2, Cummings), Iowa 9 (Marble 4, May 2, White, Gesell, Ingram). Blocks — ISU 0, Iowa 4 (Olaseni 2, Basabe, Woodbury). Turnovers — ISU 16 (Odum 6, Arop 2, Brown 2, K.Smith 2, Mahurin, Cummings, Kitchell, Burnett), Iowa 13 (White 4, Woodbury 3, Clemmons 3, Marble, Gesell, Olaseni). Total fouls — ISU 17, Iowa 13. Fouled out — Cummings. Technical foul — ISU team. A — 15,400.
Next — Iowa (22-12) will play host to Stony Brook. ISU concluded its season at 18-15.
College
Related Photos
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Indiana State center Justin Gant, left, fights for a loose ball with Iowa center Gabriel Olaseni during the first half of a first-round game in the NIT college basketball tournament on Wednesday, March 20, 2013, in Iowa City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
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Indiana State Sycamores forward Manny Arop (3) puts up a shot against Iowa Hawkeyes forward Aaron White (30) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the first round of the NIT Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. (Brian Ray/The Gazette-KCRG)
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Indiana State center Justin Gant, right, drives around Iowa forward Melsahn Basabe during the first half of a first-round game in the NIT college basketball tournament onWednesday, March 20, 2013, in Iowa City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
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Iowa guard Devyn Marble, right, passes around Indiana State guard Dawon Cummings, left, during the first half of a first-round game in the NIT college basketball tournament on Wednesday, March 20, 2013, in Iowa City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
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Indiana State Sycamores center Justin Gant (5) goes to the hoop between Iowa Hawkeyes forward Aaron White (30) and center Gabriel Olaseni (0) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the first round of the NIT Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. (Brian Ray/The Gazette-KCRG)
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Iowa guard Devyn Marble, right, shoots over Indiana State forward RJ Mahurin during the first half of a first-round game in the NIT college basketball tournament on Wednesday, March 20, 2013, in Iowa City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Discussion
Second half dooms ISU; Iowa wins NIT opener 68-52
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Joey DeNato dispelled the notion that College World Series newcomer Indiana is all about offense.
The junior left-hander threw a four-hitter and the Hoosiers looked mighty comfortable at TD Ameritrade Park while beating Louisville 2-0 on Saturday night. -
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Manaea’s selection puts ISU in spotlight
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Metro roundup: Former Sycamores take talents to CFL
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ISU’s scheduled game at Minnesota in 2016. -
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Indiana State junior Greggmar Swift will be among the top eight in the NCAA in the 110-meter hurdles after qualifying for Saturday’s finals on Thursday.
Swift ran a time of 13.51 seconds to take third in his heat. He’ll run in either lane 1 or lane 8 on Saturday.
“I got out pretty good and then I hurdled three or four when I got bumped and it threw me off my rhythm,” said Swift, a native of Barbados. “I tried to get back my rhythm … but I held on for the third place.” -
ISU's Manaea selected 34th overall by Royals
Indiana State pitcher Sean Manaea selected 34th overall by the Kansas City Royals.
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Sycamores ready for more NCAA track success
Five of the six Indiana State athletes in Eugene, Ore., already have had some memorable track and field careers for the Sycamores.
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Mike Lucas joins ISU football staff
What traits do head football coaches seek out when they hire position coaches?
Indiana State football coach Mike Sanford provided insight into that question as he hired former Southeast Louisiana head coach Mike Lucas to his staff Tuesday. Lucas will be the Sycamores’ defensive line coach.
“You have to look at your staff and see what you need. I felt like in this particular case, I wanted an experienced defensive line coach. I feel like we have a mixture of experience and youth and I want to keep that going,” Sanford said. -
TODD GOLDEN: MVC Tourney can be ISU success story if work is done
Prior to last week’s Missouri Valley Conference baseball tournament at Illinois State’s Duffy Bass Field, fear and loathing prevailed in some corners of the conference.
It seemed that Missouri State, Creighton, and most notably, Wichita State, had a monopoly on the season-ending tournament since the Coolidge Administration. (It had actually been since 1998.) How could the tournament make it without playing in one of the three aforementioned universities’ big venues? - COLLEGE REPORT: Wabash College All-American relay team has TH flavor
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Six Sycamores heading to NCAA Track and Field championships
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Sycamores bow out of MVC Tournament
Indiana State’s baseball was out of pitching, and after a loss to Wichita State on Thursday, the Sycamores were out of second-chances too at the Missouri Valley Conference baseball tournament. What the Sycamores weren’t out of was heart, guts and clutch performances from some unlikely sources. But in the end, Friday’s elimination game rematch against the Shockers was a sampling of ISU’s season overall — the Sycamores were out of luck.
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Metro Sports: Chalk up No. 5 for Liz Evans
Senior Liz Evans capped the top career in Rose-Hulman athletics history with her fifth national championship and eighth All-American award at Wisconsin-La Crosse on Friday.
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Four Indiana State athletes advance to NCAA outdoor track and field championships
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Wichita State shuts out ISU to force elimination-game rematch
Indiana State starting pitcher Greg Kuhlman did his best.
Actually, he did far better than he ever has previously in an ISU uniform, but while Kuhlman’s gutty pitching effort spoke volumes, ISU’s bats remained ominously silent. -
Indiana State baseball now one win from MVC Championship
Indiana State’s Wednesday morning wish list probably read something like this: a dominant complete game effort from starting pitcher Devin Moore, near-immaculate defense to support him, and a steady diet of clutch situational hitting from lineup spots one to nine.
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Terre Haute's Mascari running 10,000 meters for chance to get to Hayward Field
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Manaea's shoulder causing him latest pain
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ISU's Negele answers call in big way in wake of Manaea injury
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ISU baseball hoping Manaea can get its MVC Tournament moving in right direction
Indiana State’s baseball team has been waiting all season for its stars to align.
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ISU track sending record 22 to postseason
On the heels of their thrilling double victory at the 2013 Missouri Valley Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships both the Indiana State men and women moved up in the national rankings which were released Tuesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
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ISU's athletic treasure trove
Think of every championship that Indiana State has won in each of its sports, past and present. Think of every tournament — postseason or regular season — which the Sycamores have claimed as their own.
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Ort sets ISU RBI record in 16-7 win
Robby Ort celebrated his Indiana State baseball Senior Day on Saturday by becoming the Sycamores’ all-time leader in RBIs as ISU ended its regular season with a 16-7 win over Bradley at Bob Warn Field.
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Bradley ends 16-game MVC losing streak against ISU
Momentum was the only thing riding on Indiana State’s baseball game against Bradley on Friday. With a five-game winning streak going, ISU wanted to keep the good vibes going into next week’s Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
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