No. 10 Michigan State beats Iowa 71-53 for 8th win in 9 games

No. 10 Michigan State beats Iowa 71-53

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Draymond Green had 14 points and 11 rebounds, and Kalin Lucas also scored 14 points to help No. 10 Michigan State throttle Iowa 71-53 on Saturday for its eighth victory in nine games.

Raymar Morgan added 12 points for the Spartans (13-3, 3-0 Big Ten), who opened the second half with a 12-0 run that buried the last-place Hawkeyes (5-11, 0-4).

Michigan State has put itself in position to take control of the Big Ten race. The Spartans play their next three at home — where they’re 9-0 — against Minnesota, Illinois and the Hawkeyes.

Matt Gatens had 16 points to lead Iowa, which has lost four straight and six of its last eight.

The Spartans let the hapless Hawkeyes hang around in the first half and led just 36-28 at the break.

Once Michigan State asserted itself, though, there was little inexperienced Iowa could do about it.

Lucas, Morgan and Delvon Roe all hit jumpers to open the second half, giving the Spartans a 44-28 lead. Lucas then found a streaking Morgan for layups on back-to-back possessions to help Spartans jump ahead by 20, 48-28, with 14:36 left.

Michigan State’s Korie Lucious pushed it to 53-32 with a 3, and Green’s runner made it 63-39 with 7:09 left.

Iowa’s starters committed 15 turnovers and had just seven assists, sending the Hawkeyes to their four straight Big Ten loss by at least 11 points.

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said the matchup with the Hawkeyes loomed as a trap game after the Spartans cooled off streaking Northwestern, 91-70, and got past No. 17 Wisconsin, 54-47, in a grueling affair at the Breslin Center on Wednesday night.

The Spartans fell into that trap two years ago, losing to a mediocre Iowa team, 43-36, in one of their worst games under Izzo. Though Spartans drilled the host Hawkeyes by 15 points last season, they came out for the second half as if that disaster from 2008 was still fresh on their minds.

Michigan State shot 63.6 percent from the floor in the second half and, led by Green, outrebounded Iowa 38-22.

With two freshmen and two sophomores in its starting lineup, Iowa was expected to finish in the Big Ten cellar this season. Nothing the Hawkeyes have done so far suggests those prognosticators were wrong.

Iowa fell behind by at least 20 points in the first half of its last two outings, losses to Minnesota and at Illinois.

Iowa started this one strong, jumping ahead 13-9 on an Eric May 3. The Spartans responded with a 14-2 run, though, and never trailed again.

Freshman point guard Cully Payne had nine points but five turnovers for the Hawkeyes.