Northwestern had another golden opportunity to get a signature win on Wednesday night. Instead, they added another disappointing loss to their resume.

Iowa, missing leading scorer and rebounder Tyler Cook, came into Welsh-Ryan Arena and snatched a 73-63 win over the Wildcats. The Hawkeyes rallied from a seven-point deficit early in the second half to hand Northwestern its fourth loss in five Big Ten games.

“It was a disappointing loss for us, for sure,” said Northwestern head coach Chris Collins. “(We) felt like this was a game, at home, you have to find a way, and we just weren’t able to do that.”

The Wildcats came out cold early, missing their first five shots from the floor. Anthony Gaines came off the bench to give Northwestern a lift, scoring five of his team’s first nine points and finishing the half with a team-high nine points. Ryan Taylor hit his first basket of the game at the buzzer to tie the game at 34 heading into the break.

Northwestern seemed to take control early in the second half, going on a 10-3 run to open a 44-37 lead on an A.J. Turner 3-pointer. But Iowa coach Fran McCaffrey called timeout and lit into his team, and that energized the Hawkeyes. They went on a 15-2 run to regain the lead they would hold for the rest of the game.

Gaines and Vic Law led Northwestern with 13 points apiece, while Ryan Taylor added 11 and Turner 10.

Joe Wieskamp was the killer for Iowa, with 19 points on 7-for-11 shooting, while big man Luka Garza scored 16 and Isaiah Moss 10.

Here are our three pointers on the loss that dropped Northwestern’s record to 10-6 overall and 1-4 in the Big Ten:

Gaines was the spark for Northwestern: Collins has been working on Gaines’ aggressiveness, and against Iowa, Northwestern’s athletic guard showed that Collins’ effort is paying dividends.

Gaines came off the bench to carry Northwestern early in the game. He put his head down and took the ball to the hole for a layup and a three-point play the first time he touched the ball. He got another layup and scored five of the Wildcats’ first nine points, and seven of their first 13.

The sophomore continued his fearless play throughout the game, getting to the free-throw line a team-high seven times. He wound up shooting perfectly: he was 3-for-3 from the floor and 7-for-7 from the line.

Northwestern got into foul trouble again: For the third straight game, fouls plagued Northwestern. Dererk Pardon fouled out of the game with 4:07 left with just six points and five rebounds in 29 minutes.

While Pardon was the only foul casualty, three other Wildcats played extended minutes with four fouls. Law got his fourth foul with 12:50 remaining, Barret Benson picked up his fourth with 7:54 to go, and Taylor was tagged for No. 4 with 5:38 to go.

In all, Northwestern was whistled 21 times, 13 of them coming in the second half. Iowa, which attacked the rim relentlessly, particularly in the second half, wound up shooting 26 free throws, 10 more than Northwestern, and outscored the Wildcats 21-12 at the charity stripe.

The foul problems hampered Northwestern, especially on the defensive end, where Iowa was able to attack the rim. They missed Pardon’s inside presence as a shot blocker, and with four players playing with four fouls, the Wildcats couldn’t be aggressive going after shots.

Northwestern’s offense was sporadic: In another recurring theme, Northwestern had trouble with consistency on the offensive end, particularly in the half-court.

Law had another tough night shooting, hitting 4 of 13 shots overall and failing to hit any of his five shots from beyond the arc. Law, Taylor and Turner combined to hit just 12 of 36 (33.3 percent) of their shots.

Shot selection seemed to be an issue, as Collins felt that his team launched too many 3s early in the shot clock. The Wildcats made just 7 of 27 (25.9) shots from beyond the arc overall.

After a powerful Turner dunk on a drive to the basket, the Wildcats were down 65-60 with 4:36 left. But they would get no closer and scored their last points on a Law jumper in the lane with 2:41 left. Iowa scored the last eight points of the game to seal the win.