Indiana 79, Iowa 76.

The Hoosiers struggled early but seemed to put the game away late in the second half before Iowa's Justin Johnson single-handedly brought the Hawkeyes back into the game, which ended only when IU managed to steal the ball as Iowa passed up the court. Had Johnson ended up with the ball, overtime seemed likely. Here's the box score.

After an Eric Gordon freethrow with 2:10 remaining, IU led 70-57. The Hoosiers didn't exactly shut things down, (IU scored nine points in the last two minutes of the game), yet Iowa still nearly came all the way back. Johnson scored 19 points in the last 1:55, including 6-6 from three point range and a free throw that turned one of the shots into a four point play. Probably the worst that can be said of the Hoosiers in this sequence is that they allowed three offensive rebounds in the last two minutes and shot only 9-14 from the line. Still, Johnson's heroic effort nearly saved the day.

Even with the finish, IU managed a fairly effective second half defense. Iowa shot only 37 percent (13-35) in the second half. Before the 6-10 finish, Iowa was only 7-25 in the first 18 minutes of the half.

This was a fast paced game for Iowa (about 72 possessions per team), and each team obviously was just above one point per possession.

I'm short on time, so I'll look at this one more later (IU doesn't play again until Tuesday at Michigan). Yesterday, I said that I thought IU was in trouble in the case of a close game. While Iowa was quite competitive for much of the game, I was fairly content with the performance when the score was 70-57, and I'm not sure that the flukish finish should be given all that much weight. More later.