The No. 4 Iowa men’s basketball team defeated Purdue, 70-55, at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Tuesday night in its Big Ten opener.

The win is Iowa’s first in a conference opener since 2015. The Hawkeyes went 0-2 against the Boilermakers last season, and this is the only time the two teams are scheduled to play as part of the 2020-21 regular season.

After winning the tip, Purdue turned the ball over on its first possession of the game. Luka Garza followed that up by air-balling a 3-point attempt on Iowa’s trip down the floor. Hawkeye point guard Jordan Bohannon converted on his first 3-point attempt 91 seconds into the game for Iowa’s first points.

Joe Wieskamp converted on a layup and a free throw after being fouled to put Iowa up 11-10 at the first half’s 14-minute mark.

For most of the remainder of the half, Iowa and Purdue traded runs.

Only seconds after checking in off the bench for the Hawkeyes, Keegan Murray drained a shot from beyond the arc to push Iowa’s lead to 21-13. At that point, the Hawkeyes were on a 10-0 run.

The Boilermakers responded with an 8-0 run of their own to tie the game at 21. A Bohannon 3-pointer started Iowa’s own 8-0 to go on top 31-23.

At halftime, the Hawkeyes led 37-27.

Both team’s offenses were slow to start the second half, but Iowa managed to keep its comfortable 10-point lead throughout most of the first five minutes of the half. By the 7:26 mark of the second half, the Hawkeye lead was 62-47. Part of that stretch came with Garza on the bench after he picked up his third foul early in the second half. Off the bench, Joe Toussaint fed Keegan Murray twice for dunks and led the Iowa offense while only attempting one shot himself.

The Boilermakers never let the game get away from them though. Even after the Iowa went up by as many as 15 points, Purdue would bring the game back to within 10, or at one point, back into single-digits.

But the game never got too close for Hawkeye fans to start to get nervous. Iowa held its lead the entire second half on its way to winning the game.

Garza led all scorers with 22 points on 7-of-14 shooting. The senior moved up two spots into third all-time on the program’s scoring list. Wieskamp scored 17 points. Both players secured nine rebounds.

Iowa shot 43 percent from the field compared to Purdue’s 40 percent.

The Hawkeyes improve to 7-1 on the season after the victory, rebounding from their first loss of the season against No. 1 Gonzaga. Up next, Iowa travels to Minneapolis to play Minnesota on Dec. 25.