BLACKSBURG -- The Virginia Tech men's basketball team showed it could win a close game Wednesday. It also showed it could blow most of a 16-point lead.

The Hokies fended off Iowa 69-65 at Cassell Coliseum in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

Tech (4-2), which suffered close losses to Western Michigan and Southern Illinois while going 1-2 in the Old Spice Classic in Orlando, Fla., led 58-42 with 6:25 to go. But the Hokies made just 11 of 20 free throws the rest of the way.

"That's something that definitely has to improve because ... we could've easily lost this game due to missed free throws," said Zabian Dowdell, who had 18 points.

"This was an ugly one down the stretch," Coleman Collins said. "They got some open shots and we ... let them back in the game, no question, from the free-throw line. ... It's a good thing that it wasn't the reason we lost."

Six Hokies missed at least one free throw in the final five minutes. Jamon Gordon, who missed two free throws with 31.7 seconds left, was too upset to do interviews after the game.

"He's very hard on himself," Dowdell said. "I guarantee you he'll be in here tomorrow shooting free throws."

The Hokies, who were a bad free-throw-shooting team last season, were 17-of-33 from the free-throw line.

"Some of it's mental, some of it's physical and some of it's getting the right guys to the line," Tech coach Seth Greenberg said.

Iowa (2-4) went on a 13-3 run to cut the deficit to 61-55 with 1:37 left. The Hawkeyes cut the lead to 69-65 on a Tyler Smith 3-pointer with 32.4 seconds left but missed a layup and 3-pointer in the final 17 seconds.

Dowdell said the Hokies got passive late in the game. Deron Washington, who had nine points despite suffering a hyperextended right elbow in practice Monday, said Tech lost discipline on defense down the stretch.

"We could've played much better on defense," Washington said. "We didn't communicate off of switches."

"In the last four minutes, whether we got tentative offensively, which made us tentative defensively, which probably could be attributed to me, we weren't as tough as we needed to be," Greenberg said. "We lost our focus and our toughness that you need to have right down to the bitter end, and that's something we've really got to address."

The Hawkeyes, the first Big Ten team to visit Tech in 30 years, lost their fourth straight game.

"They did a very good job with their pressure," Iowa coach Steve Alford said.

After playing poorly in the two losses, Collins did not start Wednesday. Greenberg wasn't sure what he was going to get out of Collins, but Collins had 10 points and one rebound off the bench.

"I was more active [than in Orlando], tried not to let the aches and pains control me," said Collins, who was hugged by Greenberg during one timeout. "I'm still not entirely happy with my performance."

The starting post players were Cheick Diakite, who had six points in his first start of the season, and freshman Lewis Witcher (Franklin County), who had seven points, four rebounds and five blocks in his starting debut.

"It was real exciting to hear that I was going to start," Witcher said. "[I was] probably being a little more aggressive than I have [been], especially on the offensive side, trying to get open. ... Getting blocks in this game was really good."

Iowa MP FG FT R A F PT

Smith 32 2-13 3-4 7 5 4 7

Tate 24 1-4 2-2 7 2 2 4

Looby 29 2-6 2-3 4 0 3 6

Haluska 39 9-17 1-2 2 1 4 24

Johnson 31 3-4 0-0 6 2 2 9

Angle 3 0-1 0-0 1 0 4 0

Freeman 21 4-5 2-2 2 2 4 11

Wessels 2 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0

Gorney 19 2-3 0-0 5 0 2 4

Totals 200 23-54 10-13 37 12 25 65

Virginia Tech MP FG FT R A F PT

Washington 26 2-7 4-9 7 1 2 9

Witcher 30 3-5 1-2 4 0 4 7

Diakite 19 3-4 0-0 1 0 2 6

Dowdell 36 6-14 4-6 4 4 1 18

Gordon 34 4-13 0-3 4 5 3 9

Munson 8 0-0 0-0 1 2 1 0

Krabbendam 3 1-1 0-0 0 0 1 2

Sailes 13 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0

Collins 18 4-8 2-4 1 1 0 10

Vassallo 13 1-3 6-9 4 0 2 8

Totals 200 24-55 17-33 31 13 17 69

Rebounds include team rebounds.

Score by periods:

Iowa 21 44 -- 65

Virginia Tech 30 39 -- 69

3-point goals: Iowa 9-20 (Smith 0-3, Haluska 5-10, Johnson 3-4, Freeman 1-2, Wessels 0-1); Tech 4-8 (Washingont 1-1, Dowdell 2-3, Gordon 1-3, Vassallo 0-1).

Turnovers: Iowa 19 (Freeman 5); Tech 8 (Dowdell, Gordon 2).

Blocked shots: Iowa 5 (Looby 3); Virginia Tech 6 (Witcher 5).

Steals: Iowa 4 (Smith 2); Virginia Tech 9 (Dowdell, Gordon 2).

Officials: Karl Hess, Gary Maxwell, Mike Eades.

Attendance: 9,847