IOWA CITY, Iowa — Every time Michigan threatened to erase Iowa’s lead, Matt Gatens and the Hawkeyes had an answer.
The senior guard hit three 3-pointers in the second half, including one as part of a decisive 10-0 run and another to put the game out of reach, and finished with 19 points as the Hawkeyes beat No. 13 Michigan 75-59 on Saturday.
“He had a great game and he does a lot of great things for them,” Michigan Coach John Beilein said of Gatens.
Roy Devyn Marble added 13 points, six rebounds and four assists for Iowa (11-8, 3-3 Big Ten), which snapped an ugly two-game losing streak and picked up its first conference home win.
Iowa went on a 10-0 run in the second half to build a 53-37 lead and it was never really close again. The spurt included a 3-pointer by Gatens and a dunk by forward Melsahn Basabe — both on assists from backup point guard Bryce Cartwright, who finished with five to go along with four points and two steals.
Gatens’ final 3-pointer came after Zach McCabe dived to the court to corral a loose ball at midcourt and stop a potential Michigan fast break. Cartwright found him open in the right corner with a cross-court pass, and Gatens drilled it, giving Iowa a 63-48 lead with less than 5 minutes left.
“Even earlier when he was missing he was taking great looks. They all looked like they were going to go in. Then he got hot,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said of Gatens, who was 4 of 7 from behind the arc, 5 of 5 from the free throw line and had three steals.
Gatens said he kept shooting after he missed a few open looks in the first half.
“I’ve always been told, ‘Shoot to get hot, shoot to stay hot,” Gatens said.
Freshman point guard Trey Burke led Michigan (14-4, 4-2) with 19 points despite playing only 7 minutes in the first half after picking up two fouls. Zack Novak added 14 points and eight rebounds and kept the game close with four 3-pointers. But leading scorer Tim Hardaway Jr. struggled throughout, shooting 2 of 13 from the field and missing all 8 of 3-point attempts.
“We took a couple of hope 3s and a couple of hope passes,” said Beilein, who also bemoaned his players’ failure to hit some wide-open looks. “We couldn’t string anything together.”
With the loss, the Wolverines fell out of a tie for second place in the Big Ten and failed to pick up their first conference road win.
Reserve forward Aaron White added 12 points and McCabe had 11 for Iowa after scoring the game’s first six.
McCaffery said he was pleased Iowa outrebounded the Wolverines 39-30, had 18 assists on 25 baskets and only eight turnovers.
The Hawkeyes finished the first half on an 11-5 run to take a 33-23 lead. The run included two big plays by Marble: an acrobatic left-handed layup as part of a three-point play, and a fadeaway jumper from the right wing that beat the buzzer and brought the crowd at Carver Hawkeye Arena to its feet.
Michigan struggled in the first half with poor shooting, including making just 3 of 16 3-point shots attempts, and had eight turnovers. In the second half, the Wolverines cut Iowa’s lead to 43-37 before Basabe’s finger roll in the lane started Iowa’s decisive 10-0 run.
The victory helps Iowa get past two ugly blowouts that dampened fan enthusiasm, which had been the highest in years after the team achieved consecutive Big Ten road wins for the first time since 2007.
No. 5 Ohio State pummeled Iowa 76-47 in front of a near sellout crowd at Carver Hawkeye Arena a week ago. No. 6 Michigan State beat Iowa 95-61 in a game that saw McCaffery slam a folding chair to the court as he berated his players.
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