Michigan needed a good start on the road at Iowa, and the Wolverines got it. They ran out to an 11-4 advantage, but foul trouble and a poor finish doomed them in a 90-83 loss.
Junior guard Eli Brooks, who entered the game in a 1-for-14 slump from long range, missed his first two, but he finally found the range on his third one. That put the Wolverines up seven at the 15:00 mark.
U-M changed its defensive approach with big man Luka Garza, and it paid off early. The Wolverines sent a few diggers at him and made him earn his points down low; meanwhile, the Hawkeyes started 2-for-8 from three-point range, 0-for-3 from long range before Garza stepped out for a three. The Iowa big man scored the first seven points for his team to help them keep pace.
Michigan answered a 5-0 run with five straight of its own. Brooks hit his second triple at 13:10 to push the lead to 16-9., but Iowa responded with four straight inside from Kriener off the bench. They took the lead at 17-16 on a CJ Frederick drive and two free throws, and senior point guard Zavier Simpson went to the bench with two fouls.
Iowa continued to pour it on. They took a 27-18 lead with an 18-2 run before senior center Jon Teske slowed the bleeding with a pair of free throws.
Michigan’s defense continued to struggle even with Garza on the bench. Joel Wieskamp hit three triples to push the lead to 11. Brooks hit a pair of two-point jumpers at the other end, but the Wolverines started 2-for-10 from three-point range, including 0-for-3 from freshman Franz Wagner.
Brooks’ jumpers allowed U-M to hang around. His two-pointer and Wagner’s first triple cut the deficit to 35-29 before Garza answered with a three-point play at the six-minute mark. U-M simply had no answers defensively.
Sophomore guard David DeJulius came alive to help bring the Wolverines back. He scored six straight at the rim, and U-M trailed only 40-35 at the six-minute mark.
The Wolverines continued to claw. Sophomore Adrien Nunez airballed his first two triples, but he finally made one in transition. Teske hit one as well, and U-M went to the half down four when DeJulius hit a runner at the halftime buzzer.
SECOND HALF
The Wolverines pulled even early in the second half, but then the foul parade began. Michigan cut the deficit to 55-52 but picked up six fouls in the first five minutes, including a technical on head coach Juwan Howard for arguing the calls.
Iowa’s free throws made it a 58-52 lead, but the technical seemed to spark the Wolverines. They outscored the Hawkeyes 14-5 in the next several minutes to grab a 66-63 lead at the 11:36 mark on a DeJulius finish.
They took a game-high seven-point lead at 9:40 when Brooks hit another corner triple. That gave him 23 point on 5-of-8 shooting. It was six when Teske hit a jumper from the free throw line at 7:42, but Garza answered with a triple to cut the deficit back to three; he cut it to one with a 15-footer at 6:10 after DeJulius and Teske missed triples.
Iowa finally got the lead back on a Fredrick triple. The run extended to 10-0 when Garza scored inside, but Teske finally ended it with an NBA triple from the top. It was a one-point game with four minutes remaining.
U-M finally made it to the bonus at 3:25 when Brooks was grabbed off the ball. He made both and it was 80-79 — Iowa had been to the line 24 times to Michigan’s four (it would finish 30-5).
Kriener’s uncontested triple at 3:00 pushed the lead to four, and Wagner missed on the other end. The Wolverines were on the ropes, and it was dire when Garza hit a jumper following a Brooks miss.
U-M simply couldn’t score down the stretch, and Iowa closed it out from the free throw line.
Brooks led Michigan with 25 points and Wagner added 18 in the loss.
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