Clemson head coach Brad Brownell says his team’s loss to Iowa on Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament will haunt the Tigers.

Clemson opened the game by missing almost everything. The Tigers started out 5-for-20 from the field in the first 13 minutes, which allowed Iowa to build a 12-point lead.

Despite the poor shooting early, Clemson gained some positive momentum toward the end of the first half and managed to cut its deficit to seven points at halftime. In the second half, Iowa went on a run to extend its lead to as many as 14 points with 7:32 remaining, but the Tigers tried to rally late in the game, getting within five points with 5:12 to play and four points with 1:28 to play.

However, eighth-seeded Clemson could get no closer and just could not get over the hump in its eventual 67-61 loss to No. 9 seed Iowa at the Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, Fla.

“That’s what’s going to be haunting, right, with this loss, is you had a chance,” Brownell said after the game. “I told the guys at halftime, we’re in a good position to win the game. We really are. We haven’t played great. They’ve got a little bit of a lead. You’re kind of right where you want to be when you’re a team that maybe played a little better the last part of the first half, built a little momentum. If we can just get off to a good start in the second half, we can really make a shot at winning the game, and there’s plenty of time left.

“And we just didn’t quite have it tonight. We just couldn’t quite make the timely play. And again, some of that is Iowa. They’re very well coached. The kids play extremely hard. They don’t give you anything. And obviously they made a couple more plays than we did throughout to keep the lead, two or three possessions.”

Clemson (24-11) suffered a first-round NCAA Tournament exit for the second straight season, and once again, it was the Tigers’ inability to make baskets that ended their season. At one point, Clemson missed six shots around the basket. The Tigers finished the first half 10-for-27 from the field and 4-for-11 from 3-point range.

Clemson’s defense kept the team in the game. Iowa went without a field goal for nearly six minutes at one point in the second half. But in addition to Clemson’s shooting struggles, defensive rebounding and fouling were a “problem” for Brownell’s team, he noted.

Iowa (22-12) dominated the offensive glass most of the night and finished with 15 offensive rebounds, including 10 in the second half. The Hawkeyes finished with 16 second chance points, while also making 24-of-31 attempts from the free-throw line.

“I thought our kids, early in the game, for whatever reason, we just didn’t seem really comfortable,” Brownell said. “I thought we missed some shots around the rim that we probably normally make. Give their kids credit. They made some 3s early, which gave them a bunch of juice.

“I thought we stayed with our plan and hung in there reasonably well defensively, but the defensive rebounding was a problem, and obviously the fouling with the free throws. That was the big difference in the game. We couldn’t get some defensive stops we needed them, and had a couple opportunities, when we tightened the game up, and made a couple plays that were poor. So, credit to them.”