(Bloomington, IN) — Iowa men’s basketball Head Coach Ben McCollum had not experienced a three game losing streak since 2013. The Hawkeyes made sure it would not go to four games with a 74-57 win at Indiana in a Big Ten game Saturday afternoon.
Iowa led from start to finish, racing to a 10-2 lead and led 38-28 at the half. Trailing by 10, the Hoosiers got an alley oop dunk from Sam Alexis and after a Cooper Koch missed three, Lamra Wilkerson hit 2 free throws to cut the lead to 40-34. Kael Combs hit a three for Iowa but Indiana had the answer from Nick Dorn with a triple of his own.
Both teams had some misses and then Bennett Stirtz started to take control of the game, getting to the foul line for 5 straight to get the lead back to 10 47-37.
Indiana got it as close to four at 49-45 but Stirtz answered with a three pointer midway through the 2nd half and Tavion Banks had a turnaround jumper. After two free throws by the Hoosiers, Stirtz drilled another triple and it was back to a ten point lead 57-47. After 1-2 free throws for Indiana, Iowa went on a 9-0 run to put the game away.
Stirtz was the leader for Iowa (13-5, 3-4) with 27 points and Banks had 26 and 8 rebounds. Combined both players were 19-20 from the free throw line.
Indiana (12-6, 3-4) was led by Tayton Conerway with 16 points and Sam Alexis added 13.
