Iowa falls short against Dayton; suffers first loss of season

CLOSE

ORLANDO, Fla. — Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery knew his Hawkeyes didn't play particularly well in their opening round game against Dayton at the AdvoCare Invitational on Thanksgiving night.

In fact, he said he felt pretty fortunate they even were in control, albeit briefly, and had a chance to win in a tough battle at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex.

Unfortunately, the periods of the game during which the Hawkeyes faltered were too much to overcome in Iowa's 82-77 loss.

"Our offense didn't move smoothly at all in the first half, which put us in transition a lot, and they (Dayton) are a terrific transition team. They've got great speed and they share the ball and so we were kind of back on our heels. We kind of hung in there," McCaffery said. "I didn't think we played particularly well and we're only down six (to start the game), so you're feeling pretty good.

"Then the start of the second half got away from us a bit. We had a couple of goofy plays and, again, our execution wasn't very good."

In the first four minutes, Iowa missed four shots, had three turnovers and saw starting point guard Mike Gesell head to the bench with two fouls. Gesell, who averaged 25 minutes a game coming into the contest, never saw the floor again in the first half.

The Hawkeyes kept themselves in the game by scrapping away on defense. Dayton had jumped out to a 6-0 lead, but Jarrod Uthoff was just heating up.

The senior forward scored five quick points, one on a 3-pointer, then made a nice dish to senior center Adam Woodbury for another 3-pointer. Just like that, Iowa led 7-6.

Dayton used a 6-0 run shortly after the midway point to gain a bit of a cushion, 35-28. Iowa sputtered again just before the end of the first half. The Hawkeyes managed just one field goal in the final 4:35.

An 11-0 run turned a 10-point deficit into a 70-60 Iowa lead, it's first of the game, with 3:49 remaining. Gesell found his rhythm to get the offense going, and Brady Ellingson hit some big buckets to make up for Uthoff's lack of offense in the second half.

The last lead, however, was 77-76 with one minute left. Iowa never scored again.

The second half was similar to the first, but Iowa finally things got rolling.

"The last 14 minutes I thought our execution was tremendous. We got great looks at the basket and I'm really proud of our guys the way they kind of managed the game and managed the clock," McCaffery said. "We were able to get the lead, up four after being down 14. … proud of them."

Halftime—Dayton 45-39. Team fouls—Iowa 22, Dayton 21. Fouled out—none. Attendance—4.871.