By Adam Hensley
It didn’t look pretty at times, but Iowa (19-14) sent South Dakota (22-12) packing after an 87-75 victory in the first round of the NIT.
Iowa’s four-headed monster of Jordan Bohannon, Tyler Cook, Peter Jok, and Isaiah Moss kept the Coyotes’ defense on its heels; Bohannon recorded his second-straight double-double (19 points and 11 assists with only 1 turnover), Cook finished 8-of-8 shooting from the field, and the Jok-and-Moss duo dropped 7 3-pointers.
Foul trouble plagued Jok from the start, but Moss took over the offense once the senior hit the bench. The redshirt freshman buried 4 shots from deep, including a sequence of 3 in a two-minute span.
“The feeling was amazing, something I really haven’t felt before,” Moss said. “Making those 3s back-to-back, it was great.”
Head coach Fran McCaffery has tried to help Moss dial up that confidence all season long, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
“I’ve been trying to get Isaiah to consistently play with that level of aggressiveness,” McCaffery said. “When he does, we’re a better team.”
The Hawkeyes struggled to fend off a fierce Coyote rebounding attack; both teams walked into halftime with 17 rebounds.
Ahmad Wagner and Cook boosted Iowa in that battle during the second half.
Wagner grabbed two-straight offensive rebounds later in the second half, which resulted in a Cook slam. Wagner finished with 6 points and 7 rebounds.
Cook had 8 rebounds, 4 of which came on the offensive glass; he was a put-back machine with 3 tip-ins.
“As [Cook] had a chance to mature through experience, he’s affected the game,” McCaffery said. “You’re also seeing it reflected in his rebounding. Beginning of the year, he wasn’t getting [the] 8, 10 rebounds he is now.”
The Hawkeyes shot 56 percent from the field, including 43 percent from 3-point range, against a team that pressed for most of the game.
“Coach did a really good job of scouting [the Coyotes],” Bohannon said. “We knew right away they were going to try to double me in the backcourt. We did a really good job handling the pressure.”
Jok, who failed to find a rhythm in the first half, found his stride in the second, dropping 14 points in the final 20 minutes of play.
The second half also proved to be kind to Bohannon; the Marion product scored 13 points and connecting on 3 3-pointers, including a dagger-shot from long range to essentially smother any potential comeback South Dakota had in store.
Bohannon, Jok, and Moss hit all of Iowa’s 10 3-pointers.
At half-time, the Hawkeyes led, 42-38, thanks in part to 6 3-pointers.
Cook shot a perfect 6-of-6 in the first, including a clutch tip-in at the buzzer after South Dakota knocked down a 3-pointer to cut Iowa’s lead to 2.
Iowa struggled in that half with 10 turnovers; if not for some careless mistakes, the Hawkeyes could have easily led by double digits.
The win against the Coyotes moved McCaffery to 4-0 all-time at home in NIT games.
The Hawkeyes advance to play No. 4 seed TCU on March 19 at 6:30 p.m. in Carver-Hawkeye. The game will be televised on ESPNU.