Ohio State lost its third straight game when Iowa used a big second half to down the No. 16 Buckeyes 72-62 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa, on Saturday afternoon.
The Buckeyes (13-4, 3-3 Big Ten) committed a season-high 21 turnovers that helped the Hawkeyes (14-3, 3-3) outscore them 48-36 in the second half. Iowa scored 18 points off the turnovers.
OSU sophomore forward Kaleb Wesson had foul problems again and had just two points on five field goal attempts in 23 minutes. He entered the game averaging 17.1 points.
Junior Andre Wesson had a team-high 13 points and senior C.J. Jackson came off the bench to add 10.
Luka Garza led the Hawkeyes with 16 points, Tyler Cook had 15, Ryan Kriener 11 and Joe Wieskamp 10.
Iowa shot 44.6 percent (15 for 27) from the floor in the second half while OSU was at 36 percent (12 for 32). The Hawkeyes for the game made 18 of 25 free throws compared to 8 for 11 by OSU.
The Buckeyes led 26-24 at the half, but the Hawkeyes made nine of their first 13 field goals to go up 46-38 with 11 minutes left in the game.
Garza, the 6-11 sophomore, scored seven straight points to turn a 30-28 deficit into a 35-30 lead and Cook’s dunked made it 37-30 before a trey by Jackson ended the run.
OSU went 3:13 without a point before Andre Wesson hit a free throw with 9:24 left to pull the Buckeyes to within 46-39. But the Hawkeyes upped the margin to 53-41 with 8:24 left after Wieskamp made a pair from the charity strip.
The Hawkeyes could sense victory when Isaiah Moss nailed one from beyond the arc and Garza hit a bucket for a 61-45 lead with 5:15 left.
Ohio State got to within 69-61 on a three-pointer by Andre Wesson with 40 seconds left. Moss made both free throws with 28 seconds left for a 10-point lead.
The Buckeyes took the two-point halftime lead with freshman Luther Muhammad leading the way with seven points. Importantly, the bench contributed 13 points. Sophomore Musa Jallow had six of them.
OSU coach Chris Holtmann shook up the lineup by starting graduate transfer Keyshawn Woods over Jackson, who had made 39 straight starts.
Jackson entered at 14:15 of the first half. By that time Kaleb Wesson had been on the bench for more than three minutes after another pair of quick fouls.
He was whistled for two fouls five seconds apart with 18:36 left in the second half vs. Michigan State on Jan. 5. Against Rutgers on Wednesday, Wesson he went to the bench after getting his second foul in three seconds just 2:54 into the game.
The Buckeyes were able to somewhat able to make up for his absence before he returned with 7:29 left in the half when Jallow canned two straight three-pointers and freshman Jaedon LeDee made a bucket.
Those were the first points for each in seven games sine Dec. 5 at Illinois.
When Wesson subbed in, the Buckeyes trailed 18-17. He made a layup off a pass from Andre Wesson for his first points and the lead. Mohammad hit a long jumper to make it 21-18.
After Cook gave Iowa a 24-23 advantage, freshman Justin Ahrens popped a three-pointer with 1:16 as the Buckeyes went up 26-24 to complete the scoring.
The Buckeyes return to Value City Arena on Friday to play Maryland at 6:30 p.m.
