Luka Garza surpasses 2,000 career points, notches first victory over Michigan State
The senior is only the second player in program history to hit that scoring milestone.
Iowa Center Luka Garza goes in for a layup during the Iowa Men’s Basketball game against Michigan on Feb. 2, 2021 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Iowa defeated Michigan 84-78. (Casey Stone/The Daily Iowan)
February 2, 2021
Luka Garza returned for his senior season at Iowa to win games, not reach scoring milestones. But he did both on Tuesday.
With a 3-pointer early in the second half of No. 8 Iowa’s 84-78 victory over Michigan State at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Garza reached, and later exceeded, 2,000 career points. In a game full of milestones, the Washington, D.C., native also surpassed 800 career rebounds and notched his first victory over the Spartans.
“It definitely feels better that it came with a win like this,” Garza said of reaching the scoring milestone. “I’m just lucky to be part of a program like this. I’m lucky that coach Fran [McCaffery] gave me the opportunity to come to the University of Iowa and that he believed in me when some coaches didn’t.
“It’s going to mean a lot to me for the rest of my life.”
What probably meant more to Garza was Iowa’s (13-4 overall, 7-3 Big Ten) first victory over Michigan State (8-7, 2-7) since 2016. But, despite the Spartans’ recent struggles, the victory didn’t come easy for the high-powered Hawkeyes.
The Spartans, the lowest-scoring team in the Big Ten, hit their first six 3-pointers of the game and led by 11 points eight minutes into the contest. Iowa took a five-point lead into halftime and controlled the early portion of the second half, but a 12-2 Michigan State run tied the game with 12 minutes left to play.
But, unlike its previous two games, Iowa executed well late, and by the time Garza secured a rebound with 20 seconds remaining and subsequently handed the ball off to Jordan Bohannon to attempt free throws, the game was over.
Luka 2K 👏@LukaG_55 // @IowaHoops pic.twitter.com/GSx4iV98Ca
— Iowa On BTN (@IowaOnBTN) February 3, 2021
“It’s great to get back into that win column,” Garza said. “It sucks to lose. Especially when we’ve been so successful and there are a lot of eyes on us. We all hold ourselves to a high standard, especially this year. The guys who came back, we want to win. I didn’t come back to score points, I came back to win games.”
RELATED: Hawkeyes snap two-game losing skid with 84-78 victory over Spartans
Garza’s 27 points on 9-of-18 shooting (8-of-14 free throws), 12 rebounds, and two blocked shots helped the Hawkeyes snap their two-game losing skid, and provides the team with some momentum ahead of their Thursday matchup with No. 7 Ohio State.
“We definitely needed this one,” said point guard Joe Toussaint, who scored 10 of Iowa’s 39 bench points. “Especially going into Thursday’s game against a really good Ohio State team. We talked to each other like, ‘Hey, we have to get this one. We need to get back in the win column.’ And that’s what we did today.”
Garza is the second player in program history to reach 2,000 points, and the first Hawkeye in program history to eclipse 2,000 points and 800 rebounds. The senior reached 2,000 points in 113 games, faster than any other Big Ten player over the last 25 years.
The gap between Garza, the nation’s leading scorer, and former Iowa guard Roy Marble, who died in 2015, as the program’s all-time leading scorer is shrinking. Garza is only 108 points away from breaking a record that has stood since Marble’s Iowa career ended after the 1988-89 season.
Safe to say, it won’t last much longer.
“To hear him mentioned in the same sentence as Roy Marble… I wish Roy was here to see it,” Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery said. “He would have been a big Luka Garza fan. And he would have gone out there and given him a big hug.
“But 2,000 points, that’s pretty amazing. It’s a testament to his character, his consistency. When you think about who he’s doing it against, I think that makes it even more impressive.”
