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Iowa Basketball: Hawkeyes Oust Illinois, Improve to 10-1 in Big Ten

By Dylan Burn

Feb 7, 2016; Champaign, IL, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini guard D.J. Williams (0) drives to the basket against Iowa Hawkeyes guard Peter Jok (14) during the first half at State Farm Center. Mandatory Credit: Mike Granse-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 7, 2016; Champaign, IL, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini guard D.J. Williams (0) drives to the basket against Iowa Hawkeyes guard Peter Jok (14) during the first half at State Farm Center. Mandatory Credit: Mike Granse-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Iowa Basketball team recorded their 10th conference win on Sunday afternoon when they had to grind out a victory on the road against the Illinois Fighting Illini.

It didn’t seem like it was going to come easy for the Hawkeyes on Sunday afternoon when the Illini were red hot from behind the arc to start, but I didn’t think it would last for the Illini, and it didn’t.  It took Illinois 11:25 to recorded a basket from inside the three point arc, but with how hot they were from beyond the arc, they kept it close.

Iowa took advantage of the struggles Illinois was having and took a 38-29 lead into the locker room.  This is right where I expected the Hawks to be going into the half.  Road games can be difficult in the Big Ten, as I’ve said a thousand times, and Iowa did a great job of making it hard for Illinois to do what they wanted to in the first half.

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Illinois came out of the half and immediately buried a three pointer.  This cut Iowa’s lead to 6.  However, that would be as close as the Illini would get as Iowa would stretch it’s lead out to 15 on several different occasions, which was encouraging.

One thing that wasn’t was, Iowa didn’t score for more than five minutes through the middle part of the second half.  It seemed like whenever Uthoff and Jok left the floor today, Iowa’s offense sputtered. Dom Uhl made a three pointer to push Iowa’s lead to 20 at the 11:26 mark, however Iowa didn’t score until a Peter Jok layup after an Adam Woodbury offensive rebound with about six and a half minutes to go.

Illinois went on an 8-0 run during that time, but fortunately for the Hawkeyes, it ended pretty fast.  The Hawkeyes made life hard for both Malcolm Hill and Kendrick Nunn, which was a big key coming in.  Hill scored 14 points and had 8 rebounds, but Nunn was just 2-13 from the field and scored just 6 points.  Jalen Coleman – Lands led the Illini with 17 points and shot 5-11 from 3 point range.

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Iowa had four guys find themselves in double figures, led by Peter Jok’s 23 points.  Woodbury and Uthoff both recorded double-doubles. Woody had 10 points and 14 rebounds, while Uthoff had 18 points and 12 rebounds.

The Hawkeyes really made it hard on the Illini on the glass, which I figured they would.  Iowa won the rebounding battle 43-32.  That was directly correlated to Iowa’s +20 advantage in second chance points.  Woodbury was a constant on the offensive glass and Iowa got a lot of easy looks after offensive rebounds.

Anthony Clemmons continued to play well.  He was the other Hawkeye in double figures with 10 points.  He also added on to his Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year resume, he had 4 steals this afternoon.

This now sets up a showdown with the Indiana Hoosiers.  After Indiana’s loss to Penn State last night, Iowa sits atop the Big Ten standings with their 10-1 record.  They’ll head to Bloomington, IN to put that record on the line.

That game is set for Thursday night at 8:00 p.m. CT.

Stay locked into Dear Old Gold for constant coverage of the Iowa Hawkeyes.

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