After three straight games where they couldn’t quite put it together for 40 minutes, the Iowa Hawkeyes (13-5, 3-4) went into Bloomington and led wire-to-wire in a 74-57 victory over the Indiana Hoosiers (12-6, 3-4). Ben McCollum’s tagline for the program has been “Impose Your Will” and today felt like the first time Iowa has been able to do it against a power conference team.
Bennett Stirtz led the Hawks with 27 points on 7/13 shooting, 5 assists, and looked every part of a first round draft pick. Feels like this was the healthiest he’s been all season and is the type of guard play Iowa needs if they want to make some noise in March.
The first half was Stirtz’s best in a long while – 14 points on 5/7 shooting, 5 assists. He was what kept Iowa afloat early as both teams struggled to get going. They were a combined 6/26 through the first 9 minutes of gameplay. He made his first two baskets out of the gate and assisted on a third as Iowa jumped to a 10-2 lead.
But once the shots started dropping, it felt like neither team could miss. They combined to go 15/15 for a stretch of really exciting basketball. Iowa struggled containing Tayton Connorway throughout the first half but two early fouls kept IU’s leading scorer, Lamar Wilkerson, out of sorts as he had 5 points in the frame.
Despite picking up two offensive fouls on …suspicious… calls, it felt like Stirtz was the marionette this afternoon. Iowa’s pick and roll game looked as good as it had all season and pocket passes to Iowa’s screeners allowed the Hawks to pick apart IU’s defense in 4v3 situations. This group was totally locked in.
Tavion Banks has been a main recipient of these and played his best game as a Hawk – 26 points on 8/12 shooting, 8 boards, and maybe a half dozen moments of high praise from Jason Benetti, who’s called Iowa’s last two weekend games. Banks also shut down Connorway as he became his primary defender in the second half and allowed only 4 shots. Crucially, Banks picked up only 3 fouls and this felt like the perimeter defender we were sold in the offseason.
The Hoosiers had some runs in them throughout the second half, cutting Iowa’s 10-point halftime lead in half to just 5 very quickly. Iowa came right back through Stirtz, and he drew a couple fouls and sank all 5 free throws to move the lead back to 10.
Another stretch brought Iowa’s lead to just 4 Stirtz answered with a 3 then clamped down to force a shot clock violation on the other end. A Banks iso pushed Iowa’s lead to 54-45 right after. Reed Bailey, who looked spotty all game, made a pair of free throws and then Stirtz hit a three after a late double to bring the lead to 10.
Tucker DeVries free throw on the other side of McCollum’s timeout reduced the lead to 9, with 8:59 remaining and it proved to be the closest the Hoosiers ever got to Iowa the rest of the way.
Just a really impressive close and exciting finish to cap off a previously ugly run of results over the last couple weeks.
It may be unfair to take a longer view on this single game but watching IU, it really did feel like Iowa won out in terms of the “will he, won’t he” from Darian DeVries. The Hoosiers team Iowa played today did not look all that compelling in many regards and it’s hard to imagine DeVries recruiting to that caliber at Iowa. A Hawkeye team built around Tucker DeVries, Connor Enright, and Reed Bailey? No thank you.
But this afternoon was as complete a ballgame as Iowa has played and it was while their best player, Ben McCollum’s protege PG, had perhaps his best outing of the season. Iowa had answers for every run, matched the physicality of an opponent in a road environment, and came out with a good win.
Now the schedule lets up analytically, though it does come with its own set of concerns. Rutgers should be an easy one but Iowa can’t look ahead. USC is big as hell. Then comes the four game swing where Iowa plays coast-to-coast: a pair in the Pacific Northwest and then at Maryland a week later. The Big Ten’s leading scorer, Nick Martenelli, comes to Iowa City in the lone home game.
Really nice to get a win to jumpstart that stretch.
Next up: 11/20, v Rutgers at 7:30 CST (Big Ten Network)
