Iowa does what many thought was impossible by defeating Iowa State
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa men’s basketball team gave Lute Olson a performance to remember on Thursday.
The Iowa players also gave themselves a tremendous boost in confidence by doing what hardly anybody outside of their locker room thought was possible.
The struggling Hawkeyes picked the perfect time to play their best game of the season, limiting Iowa State to just 35.7 percent shooting from the field while rolling to 78-64 victory at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
The fans inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena chanted "Hawkeye state" as the final seconds ticked off the clock. The Iowa players then rushed over to the student section when the game ended to celebrate with their classmates.
“I’m real happy for the team more than anything,” said senior guard Peter Jok after winning his first game against Iowa State in four tries. “Nobody in the country thought we were going to win tonight except for us.
“We really dialed in and got everything together on defense. Our main focus was defense because we knew we were going to score. And I think we really put it together tonight.”
Iowa (5-5) prevailed on a night in which Olson attended the game, along with some of his former Iowa players, including former All-America point guard Ronnie Lester. Olson coached at Iowa for nine seasons from 1974-83, leading the Hawkeyes to the 1980 NCAA Final Four with Lester as his do-everything point guard.
Iowa State has its own star point guard, but it was hard to tell in Thursday’s game as senior Monte Morris struggled on offense, scoring 10 points on just 4-of-15 shooting from the field.
It was assumed the point guard matchup would be a huge advantage for Iowa State, but the competition finished in a draw if you combine the performances of freshman starter Jordan Bohannon with sophomore backup Christian Williams.
Bohannon scored eight points, dished out four assists and only had three turnoves while playing 30 minutes. Williams chipped in with two points and two assists.
Bohannon also made one of the game’s biggest 3-point baskets that expanded Iowa’s lead to 63-53 with 5 minutes, 54 seconds left to play.
“Jordan is a real good player and he’s as tough a guy that I’ve seen,” said Iowa coach Fran McCaffery. “He’s not going to be afraid. He’s not going to back down. He knows what he can do and can’t do. And he’s just going to keep getting better.”
The 6-foot Bohannon already had competed against several talented point guards heading into Thursday’s game, including Virginia’s London Perrantes. Bohannon said that helped him compete against Morris.
“I felt like we were able to hold our own with him,” Bohannon said. “It wasn’t just one guy. It was all five of us.”
Iowa State had a huge advantage in experience with five senior starters, but it was the youthful Hawkeyes who played with more poise and aggression, of course, led by their senior star in Jok.
Iowa has played well in spurts this season, but Thursday’s game was by far its most complete performance from start to finish on both ends.
“We had been really good at times,” McCaffery said. “We had not really put it together for forty minutes. And you have to against this team, a lot of veterans.
“And right from the opening tip we were locked in to the game plan and stayed with it in terms of trying to keep it out of the paint, trying to get back and limit their easy baskets, trying to limit their second-shot opportunities. And then on the other end, move the ball.”
Maybe it was from having Olson and Lester in the house that lifted Iowa’s performance because something was different on Thursday compared to the previous nine games. Especially on defense where Iowa had performed woefully for most of the season.
The Iowa players did all the little things on defense against the Cyclones that they hadn’t done before. They stopped gap penetration. They contested 3-point shots. And they communicated with each other, which is key to playing help defense.
Iowa held the Cyclones to just 3-of-15 shooting from 3-point range in the first half and led 44-29 at halftime.
“We really did a good job of following the game game plan,” said Jok, who led Iowa with 23 points. “We stayed out on their shooters.
“Our main thing tonight was to keep Monte out of the lane. And I think whoever was guarding him did a real good job.”
The game shifted back and forth in the early stages of the first half, but then Jok made a basket that gave Iowa a 15-12 lead with 13:32 left in the first half.
Jok’s basket was the start of a 17-5 scoring run from which Iowa State couldn’t recover in the first half.
Iowa shot a blistering 59.3 percent in the first half, which was nearly twice as good as Iowa State’s 34.4 percent shooting from the field.
Any concern with the Iowa players being intimidated or overwhelmed by the moment was gone by halftime.
The question at halftime was whether Iowa State had enough resolve, time and firepower to mount a comeback.
You figured the Cyclones would make a run in the second half, which they did by trimming the deficit to seven points about midway through the second half.
But it was too little and too late as the home team won for the 10th time in the last 12 games in the series.
“I’m just disappointed because we were bad tonight,” said Iowa State coach Steve Prohm. “Credit Iowa. Congratulate them for the victory, but we were bad.
“We lost to Cincinnati by one and Gonzaga by two, but we competed the right way in those two games. In the second half we were good if you look at their (shooting) percentage in the second half. But we lost that game in the first half giving up forty-four points. “
Iowa State looked stagnant on offense for much of the game. And when an Iowa State player did get an open look, he usually misfired.
“We didn’t run any offense like we usually do,” said Iowa State senior forward Deonte Burton said. “So it was really nonexistent.”
“Iowa played pretty good defense, too, but it was mainly us.”
The Cyclones had many open looks, but failed to convert with any consistency, missing numerous shots near the basket.
So you could say that Iowa also was lucky, but being lucky is part of winning.
Nine players scored in double figures in Thursday's game, including four from Iowa. Redshirt freshman guard Isaiah Moss scored 14 points, including eight in the final eight minutes of the game.
"I tried to get at it defensively to help bring my offensive game," Moss said. "I was a little nervous at first. But after I got it going, I was good."
So were his teammates, including sophomore forward Nicholas Baer, who came off the bench to score 10 points and grab eight rebounds in 17 minutes of action. When the game ended, Baer blew a kiss to the fans to cap a memorable night.
Iowa now has eight days off to take semester exams before facing Northern Iowa on Dec. 17 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines as part of the Big 4 Classic.
The challenge now is to keep playing at the level that was reached on Thursday. The Hawkeyes showed they could do it once. But now comes the tough part of trying to sustain it.