By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Fran McCaffery is being rewarded for seeing something in Isaiah Moss that most of the other Big Ten coaches didn’t see in the Chicago native.

And that includes the previous coaching staff at Illinois, which didn’t offer the 6-foot-5 Moss a scholarship coming out of high school.

McCaffery did, though, and Moss showed his thanks by scoring 21 points during Sunday’s 95-71 victory over Illinois at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Iowa shot an incredible 68 percent from the field while improving to 16-3 overall and 5-3 in the Big Ten. llinois fell to 5-13 and 1-6 under second-year head coach Brad Underwood.

The 23rd-ranked Hawkeyes have also won five games in a row after starting 0-3 in Big Ten play.

Moss scored 16 of his points in the second half, and he received a nice ovation from the fans when he went to the bench with 8 minutes, 39 seconds left to play, and with Iowa leading 78-55.

"I'm just getting extra reps in before and after practice and before the games and just staying consistent with that, and just believing in my shot," said Moss, who has combined to make 9-of-10 shots from 3-point range in the last two games. "

Moss had plenty of help on the offensive end, especially from freshman Joe Wieskamp, who finished with a game-high 24 points on 8-of-8 shooting from the field, Six of Wieskamp's baskets came from 3-point range.

Iowa had a stretch in the second half where it made five consecutive 3-point baskets, including three by Moss and one each by Wieskamp and point guard Jordan Bohannon.

Iowa made 15 3-point baskets overall, with Moss finishing 5-for-6 behind the arc.

Moss scored his first 16 points in the game in just 15 minutes of playing time.

He and the 6-6 Wieskamp took turn shredding the Illinois defense from 3-point range.

"Isaiah is one of my best friends on the team, so it's a lot of fun to see him have success," Wieskamp said. "When I hit my first three, I told him, now it's your turn, let's get going. And clearly he was able to do that, too.":

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Iowa also received a boost from the return of 6-9, 250-pound junior forward Tyler Cook, who had missed the previous game against Penn State because of a sprained ankle.

Cook didn’t have a huge game in terms of scoring with just seven points, but just his presence alone helped to create space for his teammates.

Cook said he couldn't recall a game in which a team shot 68 percent from the field.

"Sixty-eight percent is just a crazy number," Cook said. "Guys like Joe didn't miss. You don't see that very often."

A sign of Iowa's balance and explosiveness on offense is that sophomore center Luka Garza was only the team's third leading scorer on Sunday despite scoring 20 points.

"Anybody on our team can go for 20 on a given night, the starters and even the bench guys" Garza said. "We have great confidemce in all of them."

Illinois coach Brad Underwood had high praise for Wieskamp after Sunday's game. Underwood said he made it a point to watch Wieskamp shoot during pre-game warmups, which Underwood rarely does. He made an exception with Wieskamp because he is so imprssed with him as  shooter.

"He' an elite, elite shooter," Underwood said. "I went out just to watch him shoot in warmups and I never go out to watch pregame warmups. His balls don't hit the rim." 

Underwood also had high praise for Iowa as a team.

"That's a good basketball team, a team you wouldn't want to play in the postseason because of their inside-out mentailty and they're ability to score in transition" Underwood said.

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The competition will improve drastically for Iowa when Big Ten leader Michigan State comes to town on Thursday. Iowa will try to avengethe 90-68 beat-down tht if suffered against Michigan State on Dec. 3rd in East Lansing, Mich.

Unlike the late-arriving crowd, Iowa started quickly on Sunday against Illinois, bolting to an 18-6 lead, thanks to solid execution on both ends of the floor.

The fans cheered wildly when Iowa forced an Illinois shot clock violation with 13:25 left in the first half and they cheered louldy again when Wieskamp made his third trey of the game, which expanded Iowa’s lead to 18-6 with 11:54 left in the first half.

Iowa doubled up the Illini in points on a Cook dunk that made the score 30-15 with 5:31 left before halftime.

Iowa also took a 15-point lead in halftime as Isaiah Moss a 3-point basket right before the buzzer, making the score 39-24 at the brea k.

Illinois struggled on offense throughout the first half, and it didn’t matter if Iowa played man-to-man or zone defense.

The Illini only made 8-of-28 field-goal attempts in the first half and committed eight turnovers.

Sophomore guard Trent Frazier scored half of Illinois’ points in the first half and was the only Illinois player to make more than one field goal in the first half.

Iowa, on the other hand, shot a blistering 68.4 percent in the first half, converting on 13-of-19 field-goal attempts.

Garza was the only Iowa player to miss more than one field-goal attempt in the first half, but he still made half of his six attempts and had eight points by halftime.

And his team led by 15 points at the break, which is really all that matters.