In the first few minutes it looked as if this was going to be one of those hard-nosed defensive Big Ten affairs, but both teams quickly found their rhythm. Both teams had turned the ball over three teams each, as Ohio State took a 7-4 lead into the under-16 media timeout. Iowa responded by hitting five straight shots to jump out to an early 12-7 lead, but Ohio State recovered as Marc Loving scored 11 of the Buckeyes first 13 points.
While it wasn't surprising to see Ohio State have turnover issues in the first half, it raised some eyebrows to see Iowa struggle in that area.