Michigan holds on to beat Iowa 84-79

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- — Moussa Diabate scored 16 of his career-high 28 points in the second half and Michigan beat Iowa 84-79 on Thursday night.

Diabate, a freshman whose career high had been 15 points, was 12-of-15 shooting with eight rebounds for the Wolverines (14-10, 8-6 Big Ten), who broke a seventh-place tie with the Hawkeyes (17-8, 7-7). Hunter Dickinson scored 14 points with nine rebounds and seven assists. Eli Brooks added three 3-pointers and 13 points, DeVante' Jones had 11 points and 10 rebounds and Kobe Bufkin scored 10.

Keegan Murray scored 23 points with seven rebounds for Iowa, which had a three-game win streak end. Murray, who was coming off games of 30 and 37 points, was in and out of the game late with apparent leg cramps. Patrick McCaffery added 13 points, Filip Rebaca 12 and Jordan Bohannon 11.

Diabate's two free throws with 3:25 remaining put the Wolverines up 12 but Michigan missed its final seven shots and McCaffery led a 9-0 charge with seven points to trail by three with 1:20 left. Jones made 1 of 2 free throws with 4.9 seconds remaining for a three-point edge. Bohannon raced down the floor but threw up a long, hasty shot, apparently believing he was being fouled. Jones added two free throws for the final points.

Iowa led 39-37 after nine ties and eight changes in the first half. The back-and-forth nature of the game continued early in the second half until Brooks hit a 3-pointer at 14:23 to break the game’s final tie.

Michigan coach Juwan Howard was called for two technical fouls, the first one in the opening half for words directed at the officials, and another early in the second half when he stepped onto the court to stop a ball in the backcourt that was on its way to rolling out of bounds. Howard smiled as realized his error but was able to remain in the game as it was judged to be a less serious Class B technical.

Iowa is at No. 18 Ohio State on Saturday. Michigan is at No. 15 Wisconsin on Sunday.

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