(Iowa City, IA) — The records showed that the Iowa — Northwestern game was going to be one-sided. The Wildcats, however, would not go away but Bennett Stirtz led the Hawkeyes to a 76-70 win in a Big Ten men’s basketball game on Sunday.
Earlier in the week, Stirtz had a career high 32 points but he broke it on Sunday with 36 points as Iowa extended its winning streak to 6 games.
Jake West hit a triple to give the Wildcats an 18-13 lead in the first half and they held the lead until Stirtz tied the game at 30-30 on a three point play. Stirtz added a couple of free throw, Kael Combs hit a jumper and Tavion Banks scored the last 5 points for Iowa in the half and the Hawks led 39-35 at the break. Stirtz hit a triple to give Iowa their first double digit lead 54-40 with 13 minutes to go. West hit another triple to start a 13-2 run and four minutes later, the Wildcats had cut the lead to four. Stirtz answered with a three and Iowa stayed in front by at least two possessions until West hit another three to make it 70-67 with two minutes remaining. That’s as close as Northwestern got.
Stirtz led Iowa (18-5, 8-4) on 12 of 20 shooting including 4 of 6 on his threes and 8 of 8 from the free throw line. Banks was the only other Hawkeye in double figures with 13 points and was 7 of 7 from the free throw line.
Nick Martinelli led Northwestern (10-14, 2-11) with 21 points while West had 18 including 4-5 on his threes. The Wildcats have now lost 7 in a row.
