Iowa basketball: Hawks snap 8-game losing streak vs Northwestern

The Iowa basketball team snapped an 8-game Big Ten road losing streak with a win over the Northwestern Wildcats last night. Here’s the recap.

Last night against the 10-5 Northwestern Wildcats, the Iowa basketball team had one of their most complete and impressive performances, and in the process, snapped an eight-game conference road losing streak.

Down two starters with Tyler Cook sitting out for the game and Luka Garza coming off the bench, the Iowa basketball jumped out to a hot start getting up 9-2 on Northwestern in the first five minutes. The Wildcats, however, would respond and tie the game up just a few moments later only to see the Hawks go on another run to get up nine points with five minutes remaining in the half. As would be the case multiple times throughout the game though, Northwestern would tie the game up at the conclusion of the first half.

Coming out of halftime though, Northwestern played inspired basketball while the Iowa basketball team struggled to hit almost any shots. The Wildcats would go on a 7-0 run to go up 44-37, but a very fortunately timed TV timeout provided an opportunity for head coach Fran McCaffery to lay into his team. That proved to be the spark the Iowa basketball team needed.

Led by injured center Luka Garza and star freshman Joe Wieskamp, the Hawks continually attacked the Wildcats down low forcing them into foul trouble early, which would impact the game the rest of the way. Both of these themes also emerged during last Sunday’s contest against Nebraska.

Northwestern’s second leading scorer Dererk Pardon would foul out with five minutes remaining and three others ended the contest with four fouls.

Meanwhile, defensively, the Iowa basketball team had a fantastic performance (outside of the first five minutes of the second half). They held Northwestern to just 63 points, which is the least amount of points allowed by the Hawks since 2017. Fran continued mixing up a variety of defenses and Iowa’s half-court press defense proved troublesome at times forcing eight turnovers and more rushed shots throughout the contest.

Offensively, the Hawks struggled from behind the arc, shooting just 23.5% but they hit key shots when it mattered. Guard Isaiah Moss made tough shot after tough shot to tally 12 points on the night while Joe Wieskamp paced the team with 19 points on 7 of 11 shooting. Sixth man Nicholas Baer, making the start in place of Cook, turned in another solid performance hitting 3 of 6 shots for 9 points. He also pulled down 10 boards in the contest.

Most surprising to me was the amount of valuable minutes the Hawks got out of star center Luka Garza who consistently put pressure on the Wildcats throughout the game. He almost single handedly helped put two players in foul trouble with his back to the basket play last evening.

The Hawks would win the game 73 to 63 to move to 2-3 in the conference and 13-3 overall. They are back in action Saturday afternoon when they take on the #16 Ohio State Buckeyes.