Not all wins can be pretty, and that was certainly the case in the Iowa men’s basketball team’s 68-62 home victory over Rutgers on Tuesday for its second-straight win. Twelve turnovers, 19 personal fouls, and several defensive lapses, yet the talent overcame its mishaps.
Bennett Stirtz led the Hawkeyes once again with 20 points and five assists on 8-of-21 shooting. Tate Sage was the spark Iowa needed all game long with 17 points in 30 minutes.
“That’s important to be able to win consistently. You have to win games when it’s just not clicking,” Iowa head coach Ben McCollum said. “I did think that we did actually come ready. I thought our effort was actually pretty good. I thought our concentration was really poor.”
First half
The gritty Scarlet Knights jumped out to an early 5-0 advantage while seemingly out-hustling the Hawkeyes for every rebound. A good stretch of defense and ball movement led to two Tavion Banks buckets – one being an and-one opportunity at the rim – for the tie, followed by a Kael Combs floater for the 7-5 lead at the 15-minute mark. And after 10 minutes, a 13-12 Iowa lead, courtesy of Combs’ then-seven points.
Rutgers proceeded to go on a mini 6-0 run, and then the Iowa onslaught came into play. Sage hit a pair of corner threes, Stirtz nailed the contested bucket inside plus the foul, Isaia Howard snuck in for the cutting layup, and Cooper Koch chimed in for a three of his own, all in a seven-minute span en route to a 18-6 run and a 31-24 lead heading into the halftime break.
“I thought they played as hard as ever, in my mind, but they play hard and they fly around. That’s that’s what they do,” McCollum said. “They play 10 guys, and they just play hard. And so that certainly, certainly helps them as well.
Stirtz’ team-high seven points came on 3-of-9 shooting from the field, including five missed three-point attempts, and Banks matched that same total on 3-of-5 shooting. Sage’s six points came on two threes. The two teams had 19 total turnovers combined – Rutgers possessing 12 of those – which sums up a lackluster first half.
Second half
Iowa’s first bucket of the second half came on a Sage backdoor cut fur the easy layup inside, however, it was after a 9-0 Rutgers run turned the Hawkeye’s seven-point halftime lead into a two-point deficit in just three minutes. McCollum’s body language only got worse from then on, his hands on his hips and shaking his head as his team made careless mistakes on both ends of the floor.
Including the Sage layup, the Hawkeyes scored just eight points in the first 10 minutes – the other two bucket being a Banks three and Stirtz driving dunk. And once again, being the spark he was all night, Sage logged two more quick triples from each corner, one at the start and one at the end of a 15-7 Iowa run over the next four minutes that saw it regain the lead, 53-49.
“I feel [I’m] me becoming just dependable,” Sage said. “I feel like I go out there and just play my role and do my job very well, that when they put me on the floor. They know I’m gonna do my job.”
And when his team needed him most, Stirtz stepped up down the stretch. Every Scarlet Knight basket was offset by his nine points in the last 5:30 of the game – from mid-range jumpers to and-one opportunities at the cup. The costly fouls on both offense and defense almost cost the Hawkeyes, but Iowa provided enough cushion with its late two-possession lead to come up with the ugly victory.
Up next
After a hefty schedule over the last two weeks, Iowa will have a full week of rest before its home matchup versus USC next Wednesday, Jan. 28. As of Tuesday, Jan. 20, the Trojans are 14-4 have dropped three of its last five games and will have played Northwestern and Wisconsin before traveling to Iowa City next week.