The Hawkeyes shot the lights out in an 89-61 victory.
By Kyle Mann
The Iowa men’s basketball team had its first high-profile game on Thursday night, facing off with Marquette on national television in the Gavitt Tip-Off Games.
Things couldn’t have gone much better for the Hawkeyes, especially early. After starting the game getting easy looks to jump out to a 10-2 lead, things quickly began to look like a slaughter as Marquette was forced into a time-out six minutes into the game, trailing 18-6.
Every Iowa starter had scored at that point, and the offense as a whole was shooting about as well as could be asked, with eight players scoring in the first half and going 7-of-14 from behind the arc.
“We’ve got a variety of guys,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said. “When Steve first went zone, we had more of a driving team in there; we subbed some guys in that really could spread the floor and really did a good job moving the ball against it.”
The story in the first half was the stark contrast between the efficiency of the offenses. While the Hawkeyes shared the ball for 14 assists on 19 baskets with only two turnovers, Marquette had only 4 assists and shot an abysmal 2-for-19 from beyond the arc.
Marquette’s bricklaying paired with Iowa’s up-tempo offense led to open look after open look, and a breakaway dunk by Anthony Clemmons put Iowa ahead by 20, 28-8, with eight minutes to go.
The Golden Eagles missed their first 11 3-pointers and never found any sort of rhythm. The score was 48-21 at halftime as a bit of drool fell out of Hawkeye fans’ mouths.
Marquette started the second half with a quick burst to make it seem like it could give its fans a real game after all, but Iowa weathered the storm and regained form. After leading by 27 at the half, a Clemmons lay-up gave Iowa its first 30-point lead with 12 minutes remaining, which was extended to 35 with3:38 remaining, 84-49.
The game was really a snoozer for the final 10 minutes, but Iowa fans continued to be delighted with how impressive their team looked, particularly offensively. The Hawkeyes had six players score in double digits in what turned out to be an 89-61 victory.
Peter Jok led with 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting, 4-of-6 from distance, while Uthoff had 15 on 6-of-11 and 2-of-3. Clemmons had 11 points and 7 assists. Mike Gesell also had 11, and Dom Uhl and Adam Woodbury had 10 apiece.
“I think that’s probably our greatest strength as a team,” McCaffery said. “We share the ball, we move the ball, six guys in doubles, nobody cares who the leading scorer is; that’s a good feeling as a coach.”
Overall, the Hawkeyes shot 54 percent from the field and 12-of-22 from 3. It was an impressive showing for McCaffery’s offense, though it should be noted that Marquette was clearly having a very, very off night. The 28-point differential can largely be credited to Marquette’s 7-of-30 performance from the outside.
Nonetheless, Iowa moves to 3-0 to begin the season and opened a few eyes in the process.
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