Luka Garza becomes Iowa basketball’s all-time leading scorer

Iowa basketball player Luka Garza became the Hawkeyes’ all-time leading scorer on Sunday against Penn State.

A prestigious record was broken on Sunday evening at Carver-Hawkeye Arena when senior center Luka Garza passed Roy Marble for most points in Iowa basketball‘s 125-year history.

All Garza needed was 14 points to eclipse Marble’s all-time mark of 2,116 points. Up to that point, he had tallied 2,103 points and 845 rebounds. Garza scored his first basket on Nov. 17, 2017 against Chicago State.

Garza tied Marble’s record from the foul line with 15:12 remaining in the second half. With 8:16 remaining, Garza converted a two-point layup and now has 2,118 points and counting.

“It’s definitely going to mean a lot,” Garza said in preparation of breaking the record, while later stating that becoming Iowa’s all-time points leader takes a backseat to winning games.

Garza entered Sunday averaging a career-high 24.7 points per game on 56.3 percent shooting. Now that he’s broken Marble’s record to become the most prolific scorer in Iowa history, he’ll have his sights set on leading the Hawkeyes on a nice run in the NCAA Tournament.

“It was one of those records that, you knew it would eventually get broken, but it was going to be really hard, especially now with people leaving early,” said coach Fran McCaffery.

Marble, who played for the Hawkeyes from 1985-89, finished his career as Iowa’s all-time leading scorer. He was selected in the first round of the 1989 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks. Marble passed away in 2015 after a battle with lung cancer. He was 48.