Any coach will tell you it's easy to run and play fast when the opponent isn't making shots. That's what happened to Iowa more than anything else. In the first half, the game was close because Iowa was making shots. In the second half, VT blew the game open because Iowa didn't shoot well.
You yourself said "Iowa missed 9 layups, 10 jumpers and 11 3pt shots in the 2nd half". Looking at the shot chart, we made 3 layups, 2 jumpers and 1 3 pt shot in the second half. If we shoot a reasonable, not good and not great, percentage (50% layups, 40% jumpers, 30% 3pt shots) we end up making 3 more layups, 4 more jumpers and 2 more 3pt shots - that's a total of 20 more points. Yeah, we still lose. But we lose by 4 points instead of 24. In that case would be talking about turnovers and clutch shooting instead of team slowness.