Michigan suffers costly defeat

Iowa s Jake Kelly, left, and Michigan s C.J. Lee fight for the basketball. Kelly had career highs of 23 points and nine assists.

IOWA CITY, Iowa If Michigan fails to earn a bid to the NCAA tournament, the Wolverines may look back at yesterday s loss at Iowa as a major reason why.

Jake Kelly set career highs with 23 points including nine in overtime and nine assists and the Hawkeyes snapped a two-game losing streak by beating Michigan 70-60 yesterday.

Freshman Matt Gatens added 16 for Iowa, which outscored Michigan 14-4 in OT and dealt a major blow to the Wolverines hopes for an at-large bid.

Michigan shot just 1-of-10 in the extra session, as star Manny Harris just 3-of-13 from the field sat on the bench. Michigan coach John Beilein said Harris, who missed a long 3 at the regulation buzzer, didn t seem fresh after playing 38 minutes.

They played some really good defense on us. I thought we did get good shots thatreally didn t roll very well our way, Beilein said.

Iowa (14-13, 4-10 Big Ten) rallied late in regulation to force overtime, and Kelly and Gatens opened the extra session with back-to-back baskets to put Iowa ahead 60-56.

Michigan s DeShawn Sims then missed badly from outside, and Kelly buried a 3 from the corner to give the Hawkeyes a 63-56 lead with 2:54 left.

There were 16 lead changes and seven ties, but it took Iowa just 18 seconds to grab an overtime lead it wouldn t relinquish.

They scored the first two buckets, and we don t, Beilein said. Teams get on a roll, and there s a sense of disaster in overtime once you get down by six or eight.

Iowa had pulled within 53-52 on Kelly s jumper late in regulation, but Stu Douglass answered with a 3 to put the Wolverines ahead 56-52 with 1:13 to go.

That looked like it might be the final straw for Iowa. But Gatens hit a pair of free throws to make it 56-54, and then drew a foul on the other end and hit two more to tie it at 56 with 25.5 seconds left.

Michigan botched its final possession of regulation, as Harris was forced to throw up a long 3-point try that hit the front of the rim. Douglass had 14 points and Sims added 13 to lead the Wolverines (17-11, 7-8), while Harris had nine points, seven rebounds and six assists.

I was really pleased with the kind of effort they gave defensively. Michigan puts you in tough spots, Iowa coach Todd Lickliter said.