Bennett Stirtz couldn’t miss Sunday night and he carried Iowa to a 84-66 win over Oregon at Matthew Knight Arena to mark its fourth consecutive win. The Hawkeyes improve to 16-5 on the season and 6-4 in conference play.
The first eight minutes of the game was back and forth, featuring 10 lead changes and five ties. Back-to-back 3-pointers from senior Bennett Stirtz would give Iowa a four-point cushion with nine minutes remaining in the half. The Hawkeyes would use a, 20-5, run over the final 12 minutes of the half to create a, 35-26, lead at the break. Stirtz paced the Hawkeyes with 11 points to go along with three assists. The Liberty, Missouri, native shot 4-of-5 from the field and 3-of-4 from 3-point range. Junior Alvaro Folgueiras added eight points, four rebounds, and two steals. Seven different Hawkeyes scored in the first 20 minutes.
As a team, Iowa shot 15-of-30 from the field and 5-of-14 (35.7 percent) from 3-point range while attempting just one free throw. Iowa’s bench added 13 points while the Hawkeyes committed just one turnover in the first 20 minutes.
Oregon cut Iowa’s lead to just five, four-minutes into the half and then the Hawkeyes took control for the remainder of the game. A pair of free-throws from sophomore Isaia Howard gave Iowa a 12-point lead with eight minutes to play, then the Hawkeyes led by nine or more the remainder of the game. Iowa stretched its lead to as many as 20, defeating the Ducks, 84-66.
Iowa Head Coach Ben McCollum was pleased with his teams effort. “I thought they did a great job. Defensively we were really engaged and then particularly offensively, we’ve been working on it for quite a few games, just being able to get more drives that are away from a ball screen. I thought we’ve been pretty ball screen dependent, which is what we do, but we have to punish things away from the actual pick-and-roll, too. We did much better tonight of doing that. We’re still a long ways away and are a major work in progress, but I was really pleased with it.”
Stirtz eclipsed the 2,000-career point mark with his career-high 32-point performance. He added seven assists and two steals, while shooting 12-of-15 from the field, 4-of-6 from 3-point range, and 4-of-4 from the free-throw line. Folgueiras added 15 points, eight rebounds, and three assists while shooting 6-of-9 from the floor. Senior Brendan Hausen contributed 11 points shooting 3-of-6 from 3-point range while redshirt freshman Cooper Koch rounded out Hawkeyes in double digits with 10 points, three rebounds, two assists, and two steals.
The Hawkeyes shot 33-of-56 (58.9 percent) from the floor and 10-of-22 (45.5 percent) from beyond the arc. Iowa converted 8-of-10 from the free-throw line. Iowa’s bench added 34 points while the Hawkeyes committed a season low, five turnovers. The Hawkeyes finish their West Coast road trip at Washington Wednesday night with a 10pm tip off on KWPC. Hawkeye basketball is brought to you by Meineke Muffler, Ed Morse Chevy, Buick and GMC, Community Health Care Dental Clinic and Muscatine Power and Water.
