Iowa men’s basketball toppled Oregon on the road on Sunday night, with the Hawkeyes besting the Ducks by 18 points. Iowa’s 84-66 win was the most points scored by head coach Ben McCollum’s squad in a conference game this season.
Fourth-year Bennett Stirtz led all scorers with 32 points, as well as seven assists and two steals. Third-year Alvaro Folgueiras and fourth-year Brendan Hausen contributed 15 points and 11 points, respectively.
First Half
After a rocky start to Iowa’s previous game, a 73-72 victory over USC on Jan. 28, the Hawkeyes set a dominant tone in the first half against the Ducks.
Iowa entered the contest ranked eighth in the Big Ten, sporting a 15-5 overall record that included an 11-1 mark at home. Oregon, on the other hand, was ranked second-to-last in the conference, just ahead of Penn State with an 8-13 overall record.
With the Hawkeyes grabbing an early 6-4 lead, boosted by jumpers from Tavion Banks and Kael Combs, the Ducks’ chance to take a lead came with three shots from the charity stripe, putting Oregon up by a point.
Iowa led by as much as 11 points in the first half, a stark contrast to its six scoreless minutes to start Wednesday’s contest.
The Hawkeyes shot at even 50 percent in field goals in the first half, as well as 5-of-14 from downtown. First-year Cooper Koch and Hausen each put up a trey, while Stirtz collected nine of his 11 points in the first half from behind the arc.
With just over four minutes left in the first half and Iowa leading, 29-21, Stirtz capitalized on some extra room and swished in a stepback three to put the Hawkeyes up by 11 points, their biggest lead of the first half.
Stirtz’s sharpshooting, coupled with seven turnovers by Oregon compared to three from Iowa, sent the Hawkeyes into the second half leading by nine points, 35-26.
Second Half
The Ducks started the second half with an and-one to cut the gap to six points, but the Hawkeyes remained collected through a good portion of the game’s back half. Folgueiras and Stirtz each contributed threes, with the former notching double digits after an eight-point first half.
Iowa shot at a 63.2 percent clip for field goals, including 60 percent accuracy from downtown. Stirtz, who eclipsed 2,000 career points against Oregon, kept the offense rolling with more of a presence inside the arc this half.
With third-year Cam Manyawu on his left and first-year Tate Sage behind him, Stirtz drove into the paint and, despite being joined by three Oregon defenders, avoided entrapment, knocking in the layup just as he fell.
With just over four minutes left to play, the Hawkeyes embarked on a 7-0 run in just over a minute, a run that started with a three-pointer from Hausen and continued with layups from Stirtz and second-year Isaia Howard.
Iowa had momentum on the defensive end as well, with a steal from Howard leading to a fast break layup from Stirtz, while the Hawkeyes held the Ducks without a field goal for three minutes.
Oregon ended the game with two from the stripe to chip away at a 20-point Iowa lead, but the Hawkeyes led, 84-66, as the clock ran down to zero in Matthew Knight Arena.
Up Next
Iowa, now 16-5 overall, remains on the road for Wednesday’s game against Washington, set to start at 10 p.m. Central Time at Hec Edmundson Pavilion in Seattle. Washington is 12-10 overall and ranks 12th in the Big Ten.
First-year forward Hannes Steinbach hails from Germany and leads the Huskies with 17.6 points and 11.4 rebounds per game.
The contest will receive coverage from the Big Ten Network, as well as the Hawkeye Radio Network.