Iowa City, Iowa – Miles Kelly scored a career-high 21 points and led four Georgia Tech players in double figures, but Iowa proved superior offensively and on the glass Tuesday night and captured an 81-65 victory over the Yellow Jackets in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Tech (4-3) surrendered 19 offensive rebounds in the game, and the Hawkeyes (6-1) capitalized for 27 second-chance points. Iowa shot 52 percent in the second half and 45 percent for the game, and went to the free throw line 31 times, making 18.
The Hawkeyes had 20 of their second-chance points in the first half to help them take a 40-29 lead into the intermission. Tech came out of the locker room and scored the first seven points of the second half to close the gap to 40-36, but could get no closer.
Kris Murray, who scored 31 points and took 20 rebounds, answered the Tech challenge by scoring Iowa’s first eight points of the half and 12 of the first 22 to help the Hawkeyes build their lead back to 62-46 at the 10:17 mark. The Jackets trimmed the deficit to 72-62 with 3:31 left, but Murray responded with his fourth three-pointer as Iowa closed the game with a 9-3 spurt. Murray finished 11-of-18 from the floor, 4-of-8 from three-point range, and added four assists.
Kelly, shaking off a dislocated finger on his shooting hand suffered in Saturday’s game against North Alabama, hit 8-of-14 shots from the floor, including 4-of-8 from three-point range. Deebo Coleman, who sparked Tech’s opening minutes of the second half, scored 12, while Deivon Smith and Jalon Moore each added 10.
Moore and Smith led Tech on the boards with eight each.
Tech comes back home for its next game at 7:30 p.m. Friday night against Northeastern at McCamish Pavilion. The game will be live streamed on ACC Network Extra and ESPN+.