No. 3 Iowa bounces back with 85-71 victory over Northwestern
IOWA CITY, Iowa – As it turns out, a struggling Northwestern team didn’t stand much of a chance on Sunday.
The Wildcats were in the wrong place at the wrong time with having to face an Iowa men’s basketball team that was coming off its first Big Ten loss of the season.
It maybe took longer than expected for the third-ranked Hawkeyes to show that they were vastly superior to Northwestern. But that is ultimately what happened as Iowa cruised to a 85-71 victory before a sellout crowd of 15,400 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
The final score was actually much closer than the competition on the court as Northwestern made a late run against Iowa’s reserves.
The Hawkeyes overcame periods of sluggishness on both ends of the floor to prevail for the eighth time in nine Big Ten games.
Junior guard Peter Jok and senior forward Jarrod Uthoff led Iowa with 26 and 23 points, respectively. Both players received a standing ovation when they were replaced for the last time in the second half.
Neither Jok nor Uthoff played the final 6 minutes, 56 seconds of the second half.
Uthoff bounced back from his worst performance of the season when he made just 2-of-13 shots during a 74-68 loss at Maryland on Thursday.
Northwestern stayed within striking distance, and actually led at times in the first half, thanks to its 3-point shooting. The Wildcats made four of their first six treys and led 15-14 when guard Scott Lindsey made a 3-pointer with 12:43 left in the first half.
Northwestern guard Tre Demps made a basket to expand the lead to 18-14 with 11:53 remaining in the first half.
Iowa then answered with a 14-0 scoring run that was capped by freshman forward Ahmad Wagner’s basket that expanded the lead to 28-18 with 8:01 left in the first half.
Iowa never trailed again while improving to 17-4 overall.
The Hawkeyes led by as many as 29 points in the second half, but the Wildcats trimmed the deficit to 12 points down the stretch while facing the Iowa reserves.
Iowa coach Fran McCaffery called a timeout with less than 2 minutes to play and appeared to have a few choice words for his reserves.