The Iowa men’s basketball team knocks off Northwestern, 85-71.
By Ian Murphy | [email protected]
On paper, the matchup between the Iowa men’s basketball team and Northwestern might have been close.
In reality, the Hawkeyes returned to form and dominated the Wildcats, 85-71. And that came after the bench late seemingly tried to squander a 29-point lead.
Northwestern led 7-4 at the first media timeout and at one other stretch in the first half, but the Hawkeyes took over a game that had four lead changes and five ties in the first 10 minutes.
Iowa switched into and stayed with a devastating press defense in which the Wildcats scored only 2 points in a 10-minute stretch.
“They’re a good team; our goal was to get them to speed up and throw some uncharacteristic passes, and they did that,” freshman Ahmad Wager said.
Then, senior Jarrod Uthoff found his stroke and lit up the Wildcats for 19 first-half points. He finished with 23 on the day.
In the frontcourt, Adam Woodbury continued to show his value, pulling down 7 rebounds before sitting with foul trouble, while Wagner made his best efforts to jump through the roof of Carver-Hawkeye to grab every available rebound.
With Mike Gesell not at 100 percent, his effectiveness was limited and the Hawkeye offense ran through Uthoff for the first half, which wasn’t a bad thing.
“Jarrod played really well, like he has been all season,” Gesell said. “My job as a guard is to load them up in spots on the floor where they can do damage.”
The damage was certainly dealt, and the second half followed the script; Mt. Peter Jok erupted to turn a 10-point game into a blowout.
With Jok, the Hawkeye 3-pointers started falling. He hit a string of 3s to distance the Hawkeyes from the Wildcats, stoking up the bench after each one.
He finished his day with six minutes left in the game and 26 points, 22 in the second half.
“It feels great; you feel like every shot you take you feel like it’s going to go in,” he said.
Head coach Fran McCaffery heaped praise on the junior guard postgame, noting Jok’s ability to drive the lane forced Northwestern into foul trouble in the first half.
“He’s so smart, and he gets open, and he gets going,” McCaffery said. “Our guys know where he is, and they get him the ball.”
The Hawkeyes were up by as many as 29 en route to the final, but Northwestern charged in the cleanup minutes when McCaffery emptied the bench.
Still the rebound from the loss at Maryland was complete, as the Hawkeyes are now 8-1 in the Big Ten and tied for first place with Indiana.
And while the players deny thinking about where they could finish in the conference or the country, McCaffery took a moment to reflect on the way his team performed Sunday.
“I think it’s a confidence. You have to have confidence in yourself and confidence in the guy who lines up next to you,” he said. “And confidence to overcome mistakes.”
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