Iowa coach Fran McCaffery hopes his team’s latest performance from beyond the 3-point arc was merely a hiccup.
After shooting just 17.4 percent from deep on Thursday, the Hawkeyes will look to recover in time for Friday’s meeting with Seton Hall in the third-place game of the Rady Children’s Invitational in San Diego.
Nothing was falling for Iowa (3-2) in its 79-67 loss to Oklahoma, as the Hawkeyes canned just 4 of 23 3-point attempts while failing to ever establish a lead. Although it was a putrid showing from the perimeter, McCaffery chose to remain optimistic.
“We were running motion, I thought we were getting it to the rim early, we got open shots,” McCaffery said. “We didn’t make them, and the lead obviously stretched a little bit.
“When your offense isn’t clicking, your defense has to be locked in. We were battling on the glass big time. I’m really proud of that.”
The Pirates (4-1) faced a similar fate, but they managed to put up much more of a fight in their 71-63 setback against No. 16 Southern California on Thursday. Seton Hall went 3-for-16 (18.8 percent) from long distance, but the Pirates trailed by just four with 2:41 to play before ultimately coming up short.
Seton Hall coach Shaheen Holloway wasn’t pleased with his team’s effort in the first half, though, and he expects the squad to get off to a faster start on Friday. The Pirates trailed by as many as 14 points before the break against the Trojans.
“We gotta get back to the hotel, guys gotta ice and we gotta get ready to play basketball,” Holloway said in a postgame radio interview.
Kadary Richmond, who leads the Pirates with an average of 14.8 points per game, finished with a team-high 18 on Thursday.
Ben Krikke averages 18.2 points to pace Iowa. He scored 11 against the Sooners, while Owen Freeman added 13 and Payton Sandfort netted 12.
Friday marks the fourth all-time meeting between the teams. The Hawkeyes are 2-1 against Seton Hall, including an 83-67 win last November in Newark, N.J.
–Field Level Media
