Iowa outmuscles Jackets in 81-65 road loss

IOWA CITY, IA- Georgia Tech came into the Iowa game with a major size disadvantage and second-chance points were the real difference as the Jackets fell for the third time this season 81-65 to the Hawkeyes in the final ACC/Big Ten Challenge game for the Yellow Jackets’ men’s basketball program. The king of those second-chance points was Iowa big man Kris Murray who scored 31 points and grabbed 20 rebounds in the game while adding four threes.

“I feel like I let the game come to me and I hit open shots and I had mismatches down low as well,” Murray said. “We wanted to send a message early in the game and we knew they wanted to play a lot of zones and that would leave some offensive rebounding opportunities and we wanted to send a message not to do that.”

Murray was the first Iowa player with 30 and 20 since Bruce King in 1977.

Tech was outrebounded 44 to 35 in the game and both teams had plenty of offensive rebounds, but the Jackets had just 15 second-chance points. Yellow Jackets’ head coach Josh Pastner said the offensive rebounds and second-chance points are the downsides to his zone defense.

“We got our butts kicked on the offensive glass in the first half and that is part of the deal when we play our zone. Our zone is really good when we guard the three-point shot and we held them to 22 percent in the first half, but the issue was we get stretched and we give up a lot of offensive rebounds. That is something we work on and it is something we’ve got to get better at.”

Murray said that the Hawkeyes were focused on making the Jackets pay for their zone on the glass.

“I think they are really aggressive on both sides of the ball and we needed to crash the glass in the first half and they made a statement in the second half and made some easy baskets and we tried to minimize their runs,” Murray said.

The Jackets shot 39.1 percent for the game and just 30.4 percent from three, but Pastner liked the looks his team was getting, they just struggled from three in the first half and that dug a hole as well.

“We had some great looks and made some great shots. I thought we had some good looks offensively, but they slowed us down with some things when they went to the zone so we have to get better in those areas, but overall I was proud of our young guys and Iowa is a really good team and we have to get better,” Pastner said.

Miles Kelly led the way for the Yellow Jackets with 21 points including hitting four of his eight three-point attempts. Kelly said the Jackets’ second-half run to cut the Iowa lead to just four points came from a desire to win, they just ran out of steam down the stretch.

“It was more about the will to want to win,” Kelly said of the run. “We wanted to come out of halftime strong and make a little run. I think that is why we came out so strong.”

Deebo Coleman scored 12 points and Jalon Moore added 10 points and eight rebounds with three steals and Deivon Smith added 10 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

Center Rodney Howard did not make the trip to Iowa City due to a family matter thinning out the big man rotation.

“Rodney wasn’t here because of a personal matter at home and I expect him to be back on Friday, but either way, our guards have to rebound more and we are not a big team even with Rodney, we are just not a big team. We have to get more defensive boards from our perimeter guys,” Pastner said.

Georgia Tech trailed 40-29 at the half thanks to a major disparity on the glass with the Hawkeyes grabbing 14 offensive rebounds turning into 20 second-chance points and Iowa shooting 16 free throw attempts to Tech’s zero. The Jackets evened out some of the free throw shooting and rebounding in the second half, but a long scoreless streak after cutting the Iowa lead to four and keeping around seven led to Iowa pulling ahead by 16 with 10 minutes to go and the Jackets’ could not dig out of that hole.

Iowa came into the game having won seven of their last nine games in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

Connor McCaffery added 10 rebounds including four offensive rebounds and 10 points off the bench for the Hawkeyes.

“He is the glue guy for our team and he is a guy everyone feels comfortable with on the court,” Murray said. “He is unselfish and wants to win games.”

Jalon Moore picked up his second foul early in the first half before the first media timeout thanks to some frustration on the defensive glass as Iowa dominated the offensive glass. Josh Pastner did not like the call and nearly got a technical. Iowa led 14-8 at the first media timeout with 13:47 left in the half thanks to seven offensive rebounds. Pastner made four subs after the media timeout bringing in Kyle Sturdivant, Lance Terry, Tristan Maxwell and Jordan Meka keeping just Coleman in the game. Kyle Sturdivant hit a quick three off the bench and Jalon Moore hit a baby hook to make it 16-13 Iowa at the second media timeout with 11:59 left. Ja’von Franklin picked up his second foul of the half with 8:55 left. Terry broke a three and half-minute drought with a layup to make it 21-15, but Connor McCaffery hit a three on the other end. Iowa extended the lead to 10 at the third media time thanks to a three by Payton Sandfort and a pair of turnovers by Franklin running the Princeton offense. Tech trailed 34-25 with 3:42 left in the half at the final media timeout. Kris Murray had a double-double in just 16 minutes of action with 11 points and 12 rebounds (five offensive). Deivon Smith hit a layup to end the half with Iowa up 40-29 on the Jackets. Murray ended the half with 15 points and 14 rebounds.

Deebo Coleman scored the first four points of the half to cut the lead to 7, 40-33 with 18:50 to go in the game. Miles Kelly hit a three to extend the run to 7-0 to open the half and Fran McCaffery burned a timeout with 18:15 left as Tech cut it to 40-36. Murray hit a pair of threes, but the Jackets behind Miles Kelly kept the lead to six 48-42 with 16:03 to go. After a media timeout under 12 to go, Iowa’s Patrick McCaffery hit a three to put the lead up to 12, 58-46. Iowa went on a 9-0 run after that timeout to lead 62-46. Tech went without a field goal for almost four minutes before Miles Kelly hit a layup on a dish off the baseline from Maxwell to make it 62-50 with just under nine minutes to go. After the lead ballooned to 15 again, Coleman hit a three out of the media timeout to make it a 12-point game. At the final media timeout, the Jackets trailed 72-60 with 3:31 to go and Franklin headed to the line for two. He hit both to make it 72-62 with 3:31 to go. Murray hit a three to respond and then Kelly answered with his own three. Connor McCaffery hit one of two free throws on the other end to make it 76-65. After a pair of offensive rebounds, Connor McCaffery hit the game ender three with just over a minute to go to put Iowa up 79-65.