By Adam Hensley
Iowa hadn’t won a true road game this season, but all it needed was a trip to Piscataway, New Jersey, for a game against Rutgers, to change that.
The Hawkeyes on Tuesday defeated the Scarlet Knights, 83-63, snapping a five-game road skid.
“Today was without question the most cohesive and consistent effort that we’ve had this year,” head coach Fran McCaffery said.
Once again, senior Peter Jok sported a suit instead of black and gold warm-ups before the opening tip, signifying that the medical staff didn’t want him playing with his back issues.
Iowa’s freshmen stepped up in the senior’s absence once again.
Jordan Bohannon dropped 17 points — including 5 3-pointers — and dished out 4 assists.
He failed to turn the ball over, too.
Iowa’s big men feasted against a Rutgers team known for defense and aggressive rebounding, holding opponents to 65.1 points per contest.
Tyler Cook scored 10 points, recorded 5 rebounds, and had 3 steals. Ahmad Wagner scored 9 points and snagged 2 steals. Cordell Pemsl scored 15 points and grabbed 7 rebounds, a team-high.
The Scarlet Knights rank 19th in the country when it comes to their rebounding margin (outrebounding opponents by 7.1 rebounds a game).
When these teams battled in Iowa City on Jan. 8, Iowa clawed its way to a 6-point win. In that game, the Scarlet Knights outrebounded the Hawkeyes 19-9 on the offensive glass, keeping them in a game in which Iowa seemed unable to pull away.
In New Jersey, the rebounding numbers were very similar (Rutgers had 19 offensive rebounds, Iowa had 10). Iowa lost the rebounding battle overall as well, but a fast start and consistent shooting was the difference.
In his second-straight start filling in for Jok, Nicholas Baer stuffed the stat sheet once again.
The Bettendorf native had 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 steals. Following a Hawkeye miss at the free-throw line, Baer flew behind the rebounder and knocked the ball out of his hands, giving Iowa another opportunity for points — a signature Baer-move this season.
While rebounding wasn’t as favorable, the Hawkeyes won the turnover battle for the second-straight game. Iowa only turned the ball over 14 times, while Rutgers committed 17.
Early on the ball movement sparked an early lead, something that’s been hard to come by recently for the Hawkeyes.
Iowa assisted on 24 shots, the most in Big Ten play this season.
For the second game in a row, the Hawkeyes made exactly half of their shots (32-of-64 against Ohio State, 30-of-60 against Rutgers).
In the first half, Iowa opened up on a tear from 3-point range. Bohannon and Isaiah Moss each hit shots from deep in the game’s early minutes, and the Hawkeyes shot better than 51 percent.
One of the best plays of the game came with a little more than six minutes remaining in the first half.
Ryan Kriener held the ball close to the free-throw line and fired a bullet of a pass into the lane to a cutting Wagner, who finished with a strong two-handed slam with a foul.
That expanded Iowa’s lead to 25 points.
Iowa led by as much as 28 in a game in which Rutgers never held the lead.
Next up for the Hawkeyes, Nebraska will travel to Carver-Hawkeye for a 1 p.m. contest on Feb. 5.
