After an ugly first half where they went to the locker room trailing by a score of 30-24, the Texas Longhorns were able to impose their will in the second half and leave Madison Square Garden with a 71-57 victory over the Iowa Hawkeyes. Texas will now face the winner of the game between Syracuse and Cal in the championship game of the 2K Classic.
The Longhorns used their incredible size, strength and athleticism inside to dominate the Hawkeyes inside on both sides of the court throughout the match-up. Iowa continually tried to drive the lane, but were constantly denied at the rim by the Texas’ big men. The Longhorns were only credited with eight blocked shots, but they continually forced Iowa into low quality looks off the dribble.
The Hawkeyes were in control early, as Jarrod Uthoff hit two quick three pointers to give Iowa an early 10-2 lead. Both teams struggled to find any sort of consistency offensively in the first half, as both Texas and Iowa traded missed shot after missed shot. The Hawkeyes entered halftime with a six point lead, but it really felt as if they should have led by more. Failure to capitalize on the poor first half by the Longhorns came back to haunt Iowa.
Texas came out firing to start the second half, tying up the game after a quick 8-2 run. All eight points scored to open up the half were by forward Jonathan Holmes, who led the Longhorns in scoring. Holmes and point guard Isaiah Taylor dominated offensively in the second half. Holmes finished the night with 19 points, 17 of which came in the second half, and seven rebounds. Taylor scored 15 for the Longhorns.
Hawkeyes’ forward Aaron White led all scorers with 23 points. White was able to use his sneaky athleticism to get to the line continuously throughout the night, shooting an impressive 14-16 from the costless throw line. White also grabbed six rebounds. Throughout most of the night, White was the only reliable option for the Hawkeyes offensively.
Center Adam Woodbury was the second leading scorer for Iowa with 10 points. Woodbury also had eight rebounds. After such a quick start, Uthoff only ended up scoring eight points. The Hawkeyes shot only 29.6 percent from the field on the night.
This game was truly a tale of two halves, as the tenth ranked Longhorns gave Iowa more than they could handle, outscoring them by 20 points in the second half. Holmes and Taylor were obviously keys to their turnaround, but the length and pure size of Cameron Ridley, Connor Lammert and Myles Turner also played huge roles in Texas’ second half domination.