After losing three of its last four games, the Iowa men’s basketball team shot back in the win column with a 74-57 home routing of Ohio State on Wednesday. The two teams were tied in the Big Ten standings with a 9-7 conference record apiece, and now the Hawkeyes move a game ahead and own the tie-breaker.
Four Hawkeyes scored in double-digits. Bennett Stirtz with 22 points; Alvaro Folgueiras put up a season-high 20 points in 25 minutes; Cam Manyawu logged 12 points along with seven rebounds; and Tavion Banks was on-par with his season average with 10 points. The team shot 57 percent as a whole.
“I think to start that wasn’t our best start, but it’s kind of part of the course right now,” Iowa head coach Ben McCollum said. “But then after that, we buckled down defensively. I thought we controlled the game offensively, did a good job.”
Ohio State jumped out to a 14-2 run over the first 5:09 of the game behind Amare Bynum and John Mobley’s six points apiece. Iowa missed its first five shots, its only points coming off a pair of Tavion Banks free throws.
After an Iowa timeout, everything changed. The Hawkeyes went on a 35-9 run the rest of the first half led by Stirtz’ 10 first half points, let alone a 72-43 run the rest of the game. It started with a pair of Stirtz and Folgueiras and-ones and led into several inside looks before a Stirtz three-pointer gave Iowa its first lead of the night, 18-15, at the 9:33 mark.
Fire us up 🔥@bennett_stirtz x #Hawkeyes
📺: @BigTenNetwork pic.twitter.com/gWjNLP0H2H
— Iowa Men’s Basketball (@IowaHoops) February 26, 2026
Iowa shot 13-of-19 on nine assists through the remaining 14:51 of the first half on the way to a 37-23 lead. Seven different players scored during that stretch, including Manyawu’s eight points and three rebounds in 13 minutes. Kael Combs played all 20 minutes – the first time he’s played through a half all season.
Ohio State’s Bruce Thornton, the team’s leading scorer averaging 20.4 points a game, was scoreless in the first half. His first bucket of the game came at the 12:24 mark with an and-one layup on his way to 10 points for the game. Combs drew the assignment on defense.
“If I’m being aggressive on the ball and being aggressive defensively, I feel like that just sparks energy throughout the team,” Combs said.
There were some sloppy stretches by the Hawkeyes in the second half too, including the first two minutes before four-straight makes turned the page. A few times the Hawkeyes flirted with a 20-point lead before the Buckeyes responded with scoring punches, though the lead never got below 14 points the rest of the game.
The highlight of the second half was a pair of dunks from Banks and Folgueiras that gave Iowa a 20-point lead and nearly blew the roof off of Carver-Hawkeye Arena. A few more Folgueiras finger rolls at the rim pushed him to his season-high in scoring.
📍 Dunk City, Iowa @AlvaroFolgue x #Hawkeyes
📺: @BigTenNetwork pic.twitter.com/dPNHAO5YGw
— Iowa Men’s Basketball (@IowaHoops) February 26, 2026
“The ball has energy, and I’m a player who gets a lot of his scoring opportunities with whatever the team gives me,” Folgueiras said.
Up next
Iowa will have a few days of rest ahead of its Saturday morning matchup with a struggling Penn State squad in State College, Pennsylvania. The Nittany Lions are dead last in the Big Ten standings with a 2-15 conference record and a 11-17 overall record.
Tipoff is set for 11 a.m. CT at Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center on Saturday, Feb. 28.