The Iowa Hawkeyes returned home to the friendly confines of Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Saturday afternoon, looking to brush off a conference-opening road loss against No. 8 Michigan State. That loss to the Spartans was the first blemish on the Hawkeyes’ 2025 record, and a good test to see how the team would respond.
They passed the test with flying colors, completely dismantling Maryland, 83-64, to get Ben McCollum his first Big Ten conference victory. Iowa leaned on its superstar point guard throughout the game, but also got meaningful contributions from some surprising spots as well. There was a lot to learn from a game like this, so here are the biggest takeaways from the Hawkeyes’ first conference win of the season.
When you need to get back to what works, you give the ball to your best player and let him go to work. And that’s exactly what Iowa did on Saturday. From the opening tip, Bennett Stirtz was aggressively seeking out his shot, while also playing cool, calm, and collected. Iowa went on a 12-0, 17-2 and 19-4 run over a 4:31 stretch in the first half to build a 30-13 lead. Iowa made seven straight field goals during the stretch.
Head Coach Ben McCollum said “I thought we came out with good energy, specifically offensively. We were stagnant (last game) and we worked on it for a few days. I thought our defense was solid for the most part in that first and second half. We still had a few rebounding issues late that we need to continue to correct, but I thought we did a better job to that point and then the game got stretched out a little bit.”
Up next for the Hawkeyes is a trip to Ames to face Iowa State on Thursday for a 7pm tip on KWPC. Coverage brought to you by Meineke Muffler, Muscatine Power and Water, Ed Morse Chevy Buick GMC and Community Health Care Dental Clinic.
