IOWA CITY, Iowa – Maybe the best thing you can say about the Iowa men’s basketball team after two games is that it’s still undefeated, and that it’s still early.

Iowa struggled at times on defense in Sunday’s game against Wisconsin-Green Bay, but still managed to pull away at the end, winning 93-82 on Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Junior forward Tyler Cook and sophomore center Luka Garza led six Iowa players in double figures with 17 points apiece.

Iowa practically lived at the free throw line where it converted on 34-of-45 attempts. Cook made 9-of-11 free throw attempts, while redshirt freshman point guard Connor McCaffery only missed one of his eight free throw attempts and finished with 11 points.

Junior point guard Jordan Bohannon scored 13 points, all of which came in the second half, while senior forward Nicholas Baer and freshman forward Joe Wieskamp finished with 12 and 10 points, respectively.

"You knew it was going to be a game like this," Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said. "It was not going to be a blowout. They have too much talent and six of their top eight scorers back and they signed four junior college guys that are really good. They have a really deep roster so they can go ahead and play that style because because they can rotate personnel."

The Hawkeyes now head to the East Coast where they’ll face Oregon in the 2K Empire Classic on Thursday at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Iowa’s first two victories against Missouri Kansas City and Wisconsin-Green Bay were preliminary games for the 2K Empire Classic.

Syracuse and Connecticut will meet in the other game in New York City with the winners and losers from Thursday’s games squaring off on Friday.

"We want to be on that stage, we want to challenge our team against that quality in November," Fran McCaffery said. "We'll learn a lot more about ourselves as we get ready for Big Ten play which is right around the corner now."

Scoring wasn't Iowa's problem on Sunday, but there were times when Iowa struggled to stop Green Bay from scoring.

That script played out numerous times last season as Iowa struggled to defend while finishing 4-14 in the Big Ten and 14-19 overall.

McCaffery placed more emphasis on defense during the offseason and his players said they have worked hard to improve as defenders.

Iowa finally started to create some space on the score clock midway through the second half.

Junior forward Tyler Cook converted an old-fashioned three-point play to expand Iowa’s lead to 74-65 with just under seven minutes left to play.

Green Bay refused to wilt, though, and sliced the lead to 74-70 with six minutes remaining.

Iowa answered with another old-fashioned three-point play, this one by point guard Jordan Bohannon, that expanded the lead to 79-70 with 5:22 remaining.

Bohannon then made a 3-point basket to put himself into double figures in scoring, and his team into a double-digit lead at 84-73 with 4:47 left to play.

"I was able to move to the off guard a little bit and I wasn't too aggressive, I didn't think it was needed for me to be aggressive in the first half," Bohannon said. "I just let the game come to me like I always have and I was able to get some open shots by my teammates and I was able to knock them down."

Redshirt freshman point guard Connor McCaffery played well off the bench with 11 points and three assists. The son of Iowa coach Fran McCaffery had a calming effect, especially in the second half when Iowa finally started to pull away.

"I thought he was terrific," Fran McCaffery said. "We wanted to get the ball inside, you know, we have a size advantage. (Green Bay) is really quick, really athletic, really good off the dribble. I thought we'd get into Luka, Ryan (Kriener) and Tyler Cook. Connor does a really good job of that, plus he frees up Jordan a little bit more."

Iowa was clinging to a 47-46 lead at halftime after having missed all but one of its eight shots from 3-poinrt range.

Bohannon, Cook and starting shooting guard Isaiah Moss combined for just six points in the first half.

Pemsl sits: Junior forward Cordell Pemsel was withheld from Sunday's game due to a lower leg injury.