The Iowa Hawkeyes (18-8, 8-7) are known for their offense and uptempo offensive game, but the Hawkeyes showed that they have more than than going for them in defeating Ohio State (16-7, 9-5) 75-62 in Columbus.
The Hawkeyes played harassing defense and crashed the offensive glass to outhustle and outplay OSU. Iowa forced 14 turnovers and scored 16 points off those turnovers to win the points off turnovers margin 16-10.
OSU may have been able to play over those points if they could have kept the Hawkeyes off the offensive glass, but they didn’t even come close to getting that done. Iowa came down with a whopping 20 offensive rebounds that led to 18 second chance points. They won that stat by a margin of 18-11.
The turnover damage and the rebounding damage were just too much for OSU to overcome despite a relatively could night shooting for Iowa. The Hawks made just 42% of their field goal attempts but more than made up for it with their effort on defense and on the glass.
The only chance Ohio State may have had would have been to make up some ground with three point shooting, but that wasn’t to be. OSU was just 2 of 11 from beyond the arc for 18% shooting from three point range. Iowa was 6 of 21 for 29%.
Iowa forward Keegan Murray led all scorers with 24 points. Twenty of those came in the first half. Jordon Bohannen added 10 and Kris Murray 11 for Iowa.
OSU was led by freshman guard Malaki Brahnham with 22 points. E.J. Liddell had 15 points to go with five blocked shots. Kyle Young chipped in 10 points for OSU.
Photo of Malachi Brahnham courtesy of OhioStateBuckeyes.com
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