IOWA CITY, Iowa – Indiana’s 85-60 loss to Iowa Saturday night resembled its previous trips to Carver-Hawkeye Arena under coach Mike Woodson in the worst ways.

Offensively, the Hoosiers were careless with the ball. Defensively, they couldn’t stop what Iowa does best – shoot 3-pointers. Indiana’s third straight loss on the Hawkeyes’ home court was punctuated by 16 turnovers and a poor defensive performance that saw Iowa make 11-of-24 3-point attempts. 

The loss continued Woodson’s winless streak at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, now 0-3 since taking over for the 2021-22 season. The Hoosiers lost 83-74 in Iowa City in 2022, a game in which it committed 23 turnovers. In 2023, Indiana’s defense faltered in a 91-89 loss at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Indiana didn’t play Iowa on the road last season, but won its only game against the Hawkeyes, 74-68 in Bloomington, to snap a four-game losing streak in the series.

With Saturday’s win, Iowa snapped Indiana’s five-game win streak and dropped the Hoosiers to 13-4 overall and 4-2 in Big Ten play. Indiana heads back to the comfort of Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall for a 7 p.m. ET tipoff Tuesday against Illinois, which fell to 12-4 overall and 4-2 in the Big Ten after a home loss Saturday to USC.

“Going into this game we’d been playing some pretty good basketball,” Woodson said. “When you go out on the road in the Big Ten, you can’t turn it over, you gotta rebound with your opponent, and you gotta make shots. And we failed in all three areas tonight, and that’s something you can’t have when you go out on the road. So we gotta be better.”

Slow starts have been a common theme for Indiana this season. Even in its 82-69 win over USC on Wednesday, the Hoosiers fell behind by 10 points, 22-12. They came out with similar issues Saturday night.

Indiana committed six turnovers by the under-16 timeout, with a mix of ill-advised passes and not being strong enough with the ball. Indiana’s Oumar Ballo had the ball knocked out of his hands by an Iowa double team. Trey Galloway tried to launch a pass from the baseline to Luke Goode at the top of the key, but it led to a Brock Harding layup the other way.

Ballo went to the bench at the 14:38 mark of the first half with zero points and four turnovers. He clapped his hands and yelled in frustration, which only further excited the Iowa fans.

“Ballo’s been playing pretty well for us. Tonight he was doing things that he hadn’t been doing in this five-game stretch,” Woodson said. “It wasn’t just Ballo, it was everybody had a hand in it, especially in that starting group.”

Indiana’s defense struggled early, too. It allowed Iowa’s Josh Dix to make his first 3-point attempts as the Hawkeyes jumped out to a 21-8 lead. Iowa entered the game as the nation’s second-highest scoring team and ranked 14th with 10.8 3-pointers made per game. 

While Indiana could not knock the Hawkeyes’s potent offense off that pace, they did show some fight in the first half after falling into an early hole. The Hoosiers responded with a 13-0 run, turning an eight-point deficit into a 26-23 lead with 7:17 left in the half. 

Freshman Bryson Tucker knocked down a mid-range jumper and slammed home a fast break dunk. Kanaan Carlyle even hit a 3-pointer after going 2 for 19 from the field in the previous four games. 

But as soon as the Hoosiers got back into the game, it slipped right back out of their hands. Iowa went on a 10-0 run, which extended to an 18-5 run going into halftime. The Hawkeyes led 43-33 after 20 minutes of play that included 12 Indiana turnovers and five Iowa 3-pointers. 

“Throwing it away didn’t help and turnovers didn’t help,” Woodson said. “Not getting back, I thought our shot selection was terrible tonight. They played the matchup zone, which I thought we executed when we got back in it, but then we just one pass and freeze with the basketball. That’s something we can’t do, especially against good teams.”

Things quickly got worse for Indiana in the second half. Iowa’s lead became 54-36 less than three minutes into the half, thanks to an 8-0 run that began with another Payton Sandfort 3-pointer. Sandfort sank two additional 3-pointers to push Iowa’s lead to 25 points with 13:17 to play. 

“It’s hard to play defense when you turn the ball over a lot,” Rice said. “They had a lot of advantages. We turned the ball over a good amount of times tonight, they were able to get out and we spotted them points. That already puts us in that hole. It’s hard to be in a set defense or play together when we turn the ball over so much.”

Indiana’s first-half deficiencies on offense were largely due to turnovers as the Hoosiers shot 52% from the field. They cut down the turnovers in the second half but severely struggled to shoot the ball. Across the final 20 minutes, Indiana went 11 for 34 from the field, or 32.4%.

Rice led Indiana with 12 points and five assists, though he turned the ball over three times. Ballo had 10 points and 13 rebounds but committed four costly turnovers. As a team, Indiana shot 4 for 16 from 3-point range, or 25%. Tucker and Carlyle each had nine points off the bench, and Langdon Hatton scored eight. Starting guard Trey Galloway finished with zero points, four fouls and four turnovers in 20 minutes. 

 “I think we just played uncharacteristically tonight,” Rice said. “During that five games, we were playing real good basketball and holding on to it. I think tonight we just got a little bit outside of ourselves. We started off slow and it was like an avalanche a little bit. One thing led to another and it kept on going all night.”

The Hoosiers went away quietly in the second half and never threatened to come back. The loss continues a string of blowout defeats this season. While Indiana has a respectable 13-4 record, all of its four losses have been by 16 or more points. Saturday’s 25-point loss at Iowa was the second-largest margin of all, only behind the Hoosiers’ 28-point loss to Louisville in the Bahamas.

Indiana has a quick turnaround with Illinois coming to Assembly Hall Tuesday, and Woodson hopes his team can get back to its form from the previous five-game win streak. 

“We’ve been playing good basketball. I can’t sit here and complain,” Woodson said. “Our last five games were very competitive against some teams. We got to go back and regroup. The Big Ten is not going anywhere. We got Illinois here soon. We got a couple days to prepare and it starts tomorrow at 5 o’clock at practice.”