After a long three-game losing streak, the Iowa men’s basketball team secured the 74-57 road victory over Indiana on Saturday – its first win since Jan. 3, and an urgently-needed one.
Bennett Stirtz had a resurgent performance in terms of consistency with 27 points on 7-of-13 shooting and 10-of-11 from the free throw line. Tavion Banks compiled a breakout performance of 26 points and eight rebounds. No other Hawkeye logged more than seven points.
The Hawkeye pair of Stirtz and Banks combined for 53 points, to which they nearly outscored Indiana’s 57 points as a team.
First half
There was some ugly basketball being played between Iowa and Indiana at the start of the game – two offensive fouls, four total turnovers, and 4-of-18 shooting combined in the first six minutes. The Hawkeyes had three of those makes, including two Stirtz buckets and a Cam Manyawu and-one opportunity for an early 7-2 lead. Its defense held the Hoosiers to 1-of-12 shooting during that span.
And what was a defensive specialty of a contest turned into an offensive onslaught after a warranted media timeout, with Iowa hitting six-straight shots and Indiana hitting five-straight over a 4:30 stretch. A trio of threes from Banks, Isaia Howard, and Tate Sage along with a pair of contested layups from Sage and Stirtz, pushed the Hawkeye lead to a 28-17 double-digit lead with just under six minutes left in the first half.
Swishhh from @Isaiahoward1 🤌 pic.twitter.com/oxB8dbOcdc
— Iowa Men’s Basketball (@IowaHoops) January 17, 2026
A few buckets by the Hooisers brought the lead down to 30-25, and it was then where that swarming Hawkeye defense came back into play. Iowa let up just one made shot the last 4:30 while scoring eight points of its own, leading to a 38-28 advantage heading into the midway break.
Stirtz has struggled mightily in the first half through Iowa’s four game losing streak, but he put up 14 points along with four assists on the Hooisers in the first half. Banks trailed him with nine points – the two combining for 23 of the Hawkeyes’ 38 points through 20 minutes.
Second half
Iowa simply got out-hustled coming out of halftime through offensive rebounding, fast break opportunities, and defense, to which Indiana cut its lead to five for a third time in the contest. And the pattern continued with five Stirtz free throws extending its lead back to 10 points, 49-39, five minutes in.
The next six minutes saw the Hooisers go on a 8-0 run en route to a two-point deficit, and a 8-0 response by the Hawkeyes capped off with a difficult Stirtz stepback triple in the eyes of his defender to force an Indiana timeout – the star point guard dealing with 25 of his team’s 60 points 31 minutes in.
25 PTS & COUNTING 👨🍳@bennett_stirtz x #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/RaFsvprON1
— Iowa Men’s Basketball (@IowaHoops) January 17, 2026
And finally, the pattern broke as Iowa continued to click on both sides of the ball, courtesy of Banks. With a 57-48 lead with 8:46 remaining, he scored 11 points with a combination of dunks and jumpers while making several key stops on defense, fueling his squad’s 13-2 run en route to a 20-point lead with four minutes left. There was no room left for a Hooiser comeback as Iowa snapped its three-game losing streak.