Iowa Basketball: Takeaways from defensive win over Purdue

Iowa basketball won their first Big Ten game of the season on Tuesday by defeating the Purdue Boilermakers.

The No. 4 ranked Iowa basketball team moved to 7-1 on Tuesday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena after a convincing 70-55 win over the Purdue Boilermakers (6-3).

After suffering their first loss of the season this past weekend, the Hawkeyes came to play. Points were hard to come by, but Fran McCaffery’s team was able to piece together their best defensive performance of the season in what amounted to just 55 points for the Boilermakers.

Here are the biggest takeaways and observations from Iowa’s first Big Ten win:

• The Hawkeyes had their best defensive performance of the season, hands down. Against a legitimate shooting team, Iowa held Purdue to a 40.4 field goal percentage. The Boilermakers entered this game with a 47.5 percent shooting average. Iowa’s press gave Purdue fits all night.
• Conversely, the Hawkeyes had their worst game offensively of the season so far. The Hawkeyes finished with a season-low 70 points. Their previous low was 88. Iowa went on a long scoring drought that lasted over five minutes in the first half.
• Another 20-point performance from Luka Garza, his 17th straight in Big Ten play. It never gets old. Garza had double-digit points in the first eight minutes of game time. He finished with 22 points on 7-of-14 shooting. He was one rebound shy of a double-double.
• Garza passed Greg Stokes and Acie Earl on Iowa’s all-time scoring list and now sits in third place all-time.
• Garza got into foul trouble early in the second half. With 16:34 remaining, he grabbed his third foul. It’s the first time this season we’ve seen that happen. Jack Nunge promptly entered the game.
• Have a game Joe Wieskamp. He was arguably the Hawkeyes’ best player tonight, both offensively and defensively. When Garza exited the game after his third foul, Wieskamp took over. He had 17 points and nine rebounds and made all four of his free throws.
• Jack Nunge is so scrappy. He just seems to always find a way to get a rebound. We saw him avoid getting boxed out on a missed free throw attempt, which led to an extra possession for the Hawkeyes. His effort should not go unnoticed.
• Joe Toussaint is freaking fast. He’s such a spark off the bench. He’s been much more controlled with his energy this year, as well, and has improved as a passer. Toussaint had a beautiful bounce pass assist to Keegan Murray off of pick and roll action for a two-handed jam halfway through the second half.
• Keegan Murray with some more solid minutes. He led all bench scorers with seven points on 3-of-3 shooting. He also had three rebounds and a steal.
• Jordan Bohannon now has 300 career 3-pointers, the 10th player to do so in Big Ten history.

Up next: the Hawkeyes travel to Minneapolis on Christmas Day to take on the Minnesota Gophers at 7:00 pm CT on Big Ten Network.

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