INDIANAPOLIS — On Friday, Ohio State became the ninth No. 2 seed to ever fall to a No. 15 seed in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament by losing to Oral Roberts. Iowa wasn’t about to become the 10th.

“Watching games yesterday, you’ve got to learn some lessons from the other teams,” Iowa center Luka Garza said. “We wanted to make sure we threw the first punch tonight.”

In front of a rowdy Grand Canyon-dominated crowd, the No. 2 seed Iowa men’s basketball team led early and kept that lead throughout, defeating the 15th-seeded Antelopes 86-74 Saturday at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. The Hawkeyes will play Oregon on Monday in the Round of 32.

Iowa’s 86 points are its most in the NCAA Tournament since netting 98 points against Texas in the first round in 1992. The Hawkeyes are now 4-0 in the Round of 64 under coach Fran McCaffery.

Garza led the way with 24 points on 9-of-16 shooting in Iowa’s first-ever meeting with Grand Canyon. Guard Joe Wieskamp followed with 16 points, eight rebounds, and five assists. Freshman forward Keegan Murray contributed 13 points of his own in a balanced scoring night for the Hawkeyes.

Grand Canyon’s 7-foot center Asbjorn Midtgaard led the team with 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting.

McCaffery emphasized postgame that fast starts are key in tournament games, and Iowa, despite not playing for a week, controlled the tempo early on Saturday. Wieskamp hit a pull-up jumper 33 seconds into the game and Iowa led the rest of the way from there. The Hawkeyes hit four of their first five shots from the field to get out to an early 11-2 lead, then led by 11 points at halftime.

The Antelopes never let the game get completely away from them, but also never brought the game back into single-digits in the second half. The closest Grand Canyon got in the second half was within 10 points with 34 seconds remaining. Wieskamp was promptly fouled immediately after and hit two free throws to all but end the game.

The Hawkeyes will play Monday with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line.

Murray shines in first NCAA Tournament game

Saturday was Keegan Murray’s first-ever NCAA Tournament game. But the freshman’s play against Grand Canyon would have suggested otherwise.

“When you’re growing up watching the tournament, you always want to be in it,” Murray said. “… I just wanted to do the little things that could help our team win. To get the first win of hopefully many [in the tournament].”

Along with his 13 points (6-of-11 from the field), Murray notched seven rebounds, four blocks, three assists, and a steal against Grand Canyon. And he led an aggressive bench unit that propelled the Hawkeyes to victory.

Iowa’s bench scored 26 points Saturday night. Patrick McCaffery was good for six points off the bench, followed by Joe Toussaint with five and Tony Perkins with two.

Hawkeyes hot from 3-point range. The Antelopes… not so much

Hot shooting from the Hawkeyes was crucial to the team’s first-round victory over the Antelopes. Led by Garza’s four 3-pointers, Iowa shot 10-of-22 (45 percent) from 3-point range. Overall, Iowa shot 54 percent from the field.

“They shot the mess out of the ball,” Grand Canyon coach Bryce Drew said. “We just played a real good team,”

The Antelopes, however, only hit seven of their 26 shots from beyond the arc (27 percent).

Iowa preparing for Round of 32 matchup

Oregon automatically advanced to the Round of 32 when its first round opponent, VCU, could not compete Saturday night because of positive COVID-19 tests within the program. So the Hawkeyes will square off with the Ducks on Monday.

“I feel bad for VCU,” McCaffery said. “In some ways, I feel bad for the Oregon players because I bet you they wanted to play. But it’s just the circumstances and we’ll both move on and we’ll play each other in the next game and be happy to be here.”

Oregon is a No. 7 seed and went 20-6 in the regular season.

The game time has yet to be announced.