IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Penn State Coach Bruce Parkhill didn't know what hit him -- so to speak.

As if the suffocating Iowa pressure defense wasn't enough, Parkhill had to deal with the referees "adding insult to injury" in Penn State's 81-70 loss in Carver-Hawkeye Arena Saturday.

With the Hawkeyes up 4-2 early on, Iowa had forced a Penn State turnover, with Iowa point guard Mon'ter Glasper saving the ball from going out of bounds. One thing though, the ball had hit Parkhill in the back of the head before landing in Iowa forward Russ Millard's hands.

The next thing he knew, the zebras had called Penn State's Dan Earl for a shooting foul and Millard was standing at the free-throw line. Naturally he called the ref over.

"I said (to the ref), 'I'm pretty sure I was out of bounds when that ball went off of Iowa onto me.' " Parkhill said. It should have been Penn State's ball, but even after a conference with the official and Iowa Coach Tom Davis, the call stood.

"Life on the road," Parkhill added philosophically.

The defense would go on to frustrate the Lions in the same fashion the entire night, as the Hawkeyes forced Penn State into 16 first-half turnovers (a season-high 28 in the game). The stifling defense, coupled with four Hawkeye starters scoring in double figures, sent the 15,500 fans in Carver-Hawkeye home happily.

Kenyon Murray led the three-forward Iowa attack with 17 points and five steals, while his fellow frontcourt mates Jess Settles and James Winters added 15 and 16 respectively.

The Lions were paced by Greg Bartram, who led all scorers with a career-high 18, including a 4-of-7 performance from three-point land. Center John Amaechi contributed with 10 points, 14 rebounds and five blocked shots.

Dan Earl had 16, while Steve Wydman had a career-high 15 coming off the bench. But in the end, it was just too much Hawkeye defense.

"It was not easy to break," Wydman said of the Iowa full-court press. "Give credit to them, they swarmed like bees out there."

Iowa jumped out to a quick 9-2 lead, before the Lions slowly climbed back into the game, eventually taking the lead 21-19 with 6:34 to go in the first half. But Iowa went on a 9-0 run, and headed into the locker room up 34-29 at the half.

In the second half, Iowa's lead grew to as much as 14 before the Lions cut it to four with just under eight minutes to go. But more defense and another Iowa run held the Penn State comeback at bay.

"Penn State had made some good plays coming back at us," Davis said, adding that he felt the game boiled down to two hard-working teams on the floor. "Then all of a sudden we put together a run of some good plays."

Notes:

-- Penn State shooting guard Michael Jennings was limited to just two points in 24 minutes of action. Jennings removed himself from the game midway through the second quarter after re-aggravating a knee injury he sustained in the Lions' loss at Ohio State last Wednesday.

"He's the kind of guy that if he can go, he'll go," Parkhill said. "He just couldn't go."

-- Backup point guard Donovan Williams did not make the trip to Iowa City. Williams suffered a compound dislocated finger on his right hand in practice before the Ohio State game.