Home / Sports

IOWA CITY – Iowa had a shot to avoid history Tuesday night, but the Hawkeyes missed it.

“Law of averages, we shouldn’t miss another shot the rest of the season,” Iowa guard Anthony Tucker said after the Hawkeyes’ 52-50 loss to Duquesne at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

The Dukes’ Bill Clark forced Iowa to stomach its first 0-2 start since the 1970-71 season, draining a 3-point basket from the left side with 11 seconds remaining to erase the 50-49 lead freshman Brennan Cougill had given the Hawkeyes with a three-point play with 41 seconds remaining.

“It’s frustrating. We’re getting good shots, we played good defense and we made most of the hustle plays in the game. We just didn’t get the win,” Cougill said.

The Hawkeyes limited Duquesne to four field goals over the final 15:42, but a pair of 3-point baskets in the final 1:36 lifted the Dukes to their first win in 10 tries in a Big Ten arena.

Jason Doty buried a shot from behind the arc to erase the 49-47 lead Iowa had taken on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Matt Gatens with 2:52 left, the only shot Duquesne managed before Clark drained a contested 3-pointer in the game’s final seconds.

Iowa had two final looks, but Tucker was unable to add to his 16-point game when he missed a mid-lane jumper.

The Hawkeyes won a scramble for the offensive rebound and called timeout with 0.8 left on the clock. Tucker inbounded the ball to Eric May, who was unable to get a last-second shot to drop.

The misses finished another dismal shooting effort by Iowa, which shot just 31.6 percent from the field. The Hawkeyes hit one more 3-pointer than they did in Sunday’s loss to Texas-San Antonio and finished 6-of-27 from behind the arc, a 22.2-percent effort.

Iowa even struggled through an 8-of-15 effort at the line.

“We did a lot of good things. We were getting stops. We were defending. We just couldn’t capitalize on it,” Hawkeye coach Todd Lickliter said. “As good of a shooting team as we are, there is no excuse for it.

Lickliter said Tucker had several options on the inbounds play in the final second. He felt the sophomore made the right decision to go over the top to May.

“They had a 6-foot-1 guy guarding him and we felt we go up and take it to the rim. It just didn’t go,” Lickliter said.

Clark and Damain Saunders led the Dukes (2-0) with 20 and 16 points, respectively.

Saunders scored nine of his points during a 17-3 run late in the first half that forced Iowa to play from behind throughout much of the game. The Hawkeyes trailed 33-25 at the break and were behind by as many as 11 points just over four minutes into the second half.

“We fought. We battled back into it. We had open looks, but they wouldn’t drop,” Tucker said. “We have to find ways to score.”

The Dukes played without their scoring leader from Friday’s season opener. Melquan Bolding, a sophomore wing who scored 25 points against Nicholls State, underwent surgery Tuesday morning to repair a fractured wrist.

Duquesne 52, Iowa 50

DUQUESNE (2-0) — Saunders 7-10 0-2 16, Clark 7-17 2-4 20, Evans 3-14 0-2 7, Duty 1-3 0-0 3, Monteiro 3-5 0-1 6, Marhold 0-3 0-0 0, Williams 0-0 0-0 0, Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Peggau 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 21-53 2-9 52.

IOWA (0-2) — Fuller 2-5 0-0 4, Cole 3-6 1-3 7, Tucker 6-15 1-3 16, Payne 0-2 0-0 0, Gatens 2-12 3-3 9, Bawinkel 1-5 0-0 3, May 1-7 1-4 3, Cougill 3-5 2-2 8. Totals 18-57 8-15 50.

Halftime—Duquesne 33-25. 3-Point Goals—Duquesne 8-22 (Clark 4-12, Saunders 2-2, Duty 1-1, Evans 1-5, Peggau 0-1, Monteiro 0-1), Iowa 6-27 (Tucker 3-10, Gatens 2-6, Bawinkel 1-5, Cougill 0-1, Payne 0-2, May 0-3). Fouled Out—Saunders. Rebounds—Duquesne 42 (Saunders 16), Iowa 38 (Gatens 8). Assists—Duquesne 14 (Evans 6), Iowa 11 (Payne 6). Total Fouls—Duquesne 20, Iowa 12. A—7,943.