Iowa basketball: Hawks extend winning streak to three with win over Western Carolina

The men’s Iowa basketball team took care of business last night against the Western Carolina Catamounts to extend their winning streak. Here’s the recap.

It’s really not a surprise that we are sitting here talking about last nights victory. The now 3-10 Catamounts are not the epitome of success, and with the Iowa basketball team playing strong basketball as of late, it was expected to be an easy win.

The Catamounts, however, at least put up a fight. As we noted in our preview of the Catamounts, they rely heavily on the three pointer, but they had been shooting under 35% heading into this game versus the Iowa basketball team. Well, they were hot early and it kept them in the game for the first eight minutes after they hit their first four three-point attempts.

With 12:38 remaining in the first half though, the Hawks began to pull away. They went on a 12-3 run over the next three minutes of play and then went on another run, this time a 12-2 run, from the 7:53 mark to the 4:07 mark.

Just like a car on the interstate, from here the Hawks put the car in cruise control and rose their lead to an easy 78-60 victory. The Iowa basketball team had a season-high eleven players make an appearance in the game, and McCaffery was able to rest freshman sensation Joe Wieskamp a little bit in this contest (he had a season low 18 minutes played).

Tyler Cook led the Hawks in minutes with 32 and points with 18. Luka Garza added in 15 points of his own as Iowa finally took advantage of their size advantage. They also did pretty well on the defensive side of the ball, holding the Catamounts best player Carlos Dotson to one of his worst shooting performances of the season (10 points on 45% shooting).

It wasn’t the prettiest of games though as the Iowa basketball team continued to struggle from behind the arc shooting 27.8% and hitting just five of their 18 attempts. Moreover, star junior Jordan Bohannon had another disappointing game from the field. Despite these shooting woes, the Hawks were able to keep a sizeable lead throughout the contest in large part due to the 26 turnovers they forced, which is a season high.

One exciting thing is that the defense is continuing to keep the intensity throughout, even if it is a weaker opponent. In the last two contests, the Iowa basketball team has allowed their first and second lowest scoring totals of the season.

The men’s basketball team is back in action Saturday afternoon when they take on Savannah State at Carver Hawkeye Arena.