By Pat Harty

You could say that Wednesday’s game at Penn State had loss written all over it for the Iowa men’s basketball team.

The Nittany Lions made 12 3-point baskets, were playing at home and were desperate for a victory after losing their first six conference games, while Iowa was playing without 6-foot-9, 250-pound junior forward Tyler Cook, its leading scorer and rebounder.

And yet, the surging Hawkeyes still found a way to win 89-82 on a night when their defense left much to be desired.

Iowa compensated for its poor defense with a balanced offensive attack that included five players who scored in double figures, led by 6-foot-11 sophomore center Luka Garza with 22 points.

Iowa also matched Penn State with 12 3-point baskets and none were bigger than the one made by junior point guard Jordan Bohannon from about 25 feet that gave Iowa an 86-82 lead with 35 seconds remaining. It was Bohannon's fifth 3-pointer of the game.

The 23^rd-ranked Hawkeyes improved to 15-3 overall, 4-3 in the Big Ten and 2-0 without Cook, who was withheld from Wednesday’s game due to a sprained ankle that he sustained against Ohio State last Saturday.

Cook also missed Iowa’s victory at Northwestern last Wednesday’s due to a sore knee.

It took a team effort to fill his void and that’s what the Hawkeyes put forth on Wednesday.

Junior forward Ryan Kriener came off the bench to score 15 points, while junior guard Isaiah Moss scored all 12 of his points in the first half when his teammates were struggling to make shots.

“Ryan Kriener was spectacular and he’s been that way all year long,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said on the Big Ten Network post-game interview. “We needed him tonight, especially without (Tyler Cook). We get it from him on both ends. He can score and he’s really smart and he rebounds and defends.

“Garza was great. I thought Connor (McCaffery) gave us great minutes, and Bohannon, huge shots as always. Early on it was Moss when we seemingly couldn’t get a basket. So really a team effort.”

Iowa found a way to win Wednesday's game despite some tough circumstances, while the Nittany Lions found yet another way to lose. That says a lot about both teams and shows how far Iowa has come since last season. 

Penn State was trailing 79-72 when it went on an 8-0 scoring run to take the lead with 3 minutes remaining.

But the Hawkeyes closed the game on a 10-2 scoring run and held Penn State scoreless over the final 2 minutes.

It was the kind of performance from Iowa that rarely happened last season with the game on the line.  

Iowa is coming off a season in which it suffered a stunning decline, finishing 4-14 in the Big Ten and 14-19 overall. Two of the losses came against Penn State, including an 82-58 drubbing in State College, Pa., last Feb. 3^rd.

So there was plenty of incentive for the Hawkeyes to play well on Wednesday, including being tabbed as a two-point underdog against a Penn State squad that was 0-6 in the conference and that had been outscored by an average of 10 points in each of those six losses.

Iowa still is suspect in the eyes of some, especially without Cook, and the only way to change that perception is to just keep winning games.

Iowa has won four games in a row after starting 0-3 in conference play and should be a heavy favorite to defeat lowly Illinois on Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

The Hawkeyes also surpassed their win total from last season and have matched their win total in conference play from last season, and still have 13 conference games remaining.

The grit and resolve that Iowa showed in Wednesday's game was missing for most of last season. Last year's team often wilted under the pressure, or at the first sign of adversity, while the current team just keeps grinding and making big shots. 

Iowa’s transition defense left much to be desired in the early minutes of Wednesday's game when Penn State freshman guard Myles Dread made three 3-point baskets in barely more than a minute. His second trey gave Penn State an 8-0 lead and that caused Fran McCaffery to call a timeout with 18:45 left in the first half.

Whatever McCaffery said apparently worked because Iowa quickly chipped away at the deficit and took its first lead of the game at 17-16 on a 3-point basket by Bohannon with 11:13 left in the first half.

Iowa also made four consecutive 3-point baskets, including three in a row by Moss, which turned a 20-17 deficit into a 29-20 lead with about 7 minutes left in the first half.

But the Nittany Lions answered with scoring runs of 11-3 and 10-0 and led 45-40 at the break.

It marked just the second time in seven Big Ten games that Penn State has led at halftime.

So it was clear at halftime that Iowa was in trouble and that Cook wasn’t available.

Penn State entered Wednesday’s game averaging just 58 points per contest, but had 45 points at halftime.

The first half sort of turned into a 3-point shooting contest as Iowa made nine treys and Penn State made seven.

The second half was a back-and-forth affair until Iowa seized the momentum at the end.

Iowa has now won two Big Ten games on the road after winning just once on the road last season at Illinois.

McCaffery was asked what he said to his players at halftime.

“We did a lot of things uncharacteristic of our team in the first half,” Fran McCaffery said. “We talked about doing things that we didn’t do.

“So I reminded them of that, and then I challenged them to be better.”