Hawks show fight in defeat
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By Steve Batterson | Thursday, February 28, 2008 |
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Seth Gorney didn’t look back as he walked out of Michigan State’s Breslin Center one final time Saturday afternoon.
“I won’t miss this place one bit, not at all,’’ the Iowa senior said. “At least this time we didn’t quit. We got down early, but we kept playing.’’
Gorney, who stomached
30- and 32-point road losses to the Spartans earlier in his career, found that silver lining in Saturday’s 66-52 loss to 19th-ranked Michigan State.
The fact the Hawkeyes continued to compete was about the only thing they could take from a Big Ten mismatch that gave Spartans coach Tom Izzo the 300th win of his career.
Michigan State, which lost 43-36 at Iowa on Jan. 12, hit the Hawkeyes with a 20-1 burst at the start of the game. Iowa missed its first nine shots and had seven turnovers by the time Gorney hit the Hawkeyes’ first field goal 10 minutes, 22 seconds into the game.
“That’s a tough team to spot a 19-point lead. … I was afraid that we might not get to double digits before the half,” Iowa coach Todd Lickliter said. “They showed us why they are rated where they are. I don’t think it was a total disaster, but it sure wasn’t a good enough effort to win here against this team.”
Izzo said the Spartans delivered the type of effort he wanted.
“We went in wanting to bring some energy and we did. We wanted to put some pressure on them, keep them off the free-throw line, stop the 3-point shot and take care of the ball,” Izzo said. “We did all the things that we didn’t do at their place.”
About the only thing Michigan State was unable to do was keep Cyrus Tate in check.
The junior accounted for half of Iowa’s points, hitting 10-of-13 shots en route to a career-high 26-point performance.
“Tate ate our guys up inside,” Izzo said.
All but eight of Tate’s points came in the second half and by then, he already had grabbed five of his team-high nine rebounds.
“I found myself open under the basket. I was just trying to play my role in coach Lickliter’s system,” Tate said.
Lickliter said that led Tate to get the open looks he did.
“Cyrus very seldom goes away from his strengths,” Lickliter said. “He is more than content to stay down low, work hard on the glass, draw fouls, defend and he does not try to do things that will make it difficult for him.”
Saturday, that wasn’t enough against a Michigan State team that turned 16 Iowa turnovers into 13 points, collected 14 points off of 17 offensive rebounds and turned the ball over a season-low five times.
“They just came out and pounded us from the start,” Tate said. “The intensity was totally different from what they gave us (in the January game).”
The slow start created some tension in the Hawkeyes huddle as Gorney and Tate briefly exchanged heated words during a first-half timeout.
“It wasn’t much, just about where we needed to be on the floor, that type of thing,” Gorney said.
Lickliter said his team initially seemed anxious, but the Hawkeyes did pull as close as 27-18 before going without a point over the final 4:34 of an opening half that ended with the Spartans (12-16, 5-10 Big Ten) on top, 31-18.
Iowa (22-5, 10-4) pulled within 11 points during the opening minute of the second half, as close as the Hawkeyes would come.
Steve Batterson can be contacted at (563) 383-2290 or sbatterson@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.
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