IOWA 77, NORTHWESTERN 70: ONE LAST HURRAH AT CHA

While the season overall has been a low-note, you couldn’t tell it from the Iowa Hawkeyes’ performance on senior night against Northwestern. Jordan Bohannon had 25 points, including 7 3-pointers, and that’s all you really need to know.

The Iowa Hawkeyes defeated the Northwestern Wildcats 77-70 on Senior Night in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

After the 22-2 start against the Gophers earlier this week, the Hawkeyes came out firing at a fast pace, with both teams trading blows to start things off. The Hawks then opened up a 14-9 lead and didn’t look back. Thanks to sharp shooting from beyond the arc from newly crowned sharpshooter Isaiah Moss and a resurgent Jordan Bohannon, the Hawks opened up a 24-12 lead with 12 minutes left that included four three-pointers.

The lead continued to balloon thanks to Bohannon, who hit three of four-straight shots from deep that pushed the lead to 30-12. The Hawks never trailed again.

After a recent slump for Bohannon, including going 0-2 for 0 points against Minnesota, and starting 0-2 from deep against Northwestern, Bohannon came back with a vengeance. He was 6-9 (nice) from beyond the arc iN THE FIRST HALF ALONE, logged 20 points, and tied Chris Street’s record of 34 consecutive makes at the charity stripe. He missed his 35th attempt with 2 minutes left in the game, and told BTN afterwards that he missed it on purpose to share the record with Street. That’s downright touching.

“It was great to see [Bohannon] get his swag back,” head coach Fran McCaffery told BTN immediately after the game.

The second half was more of the same. Bohannon only scored one more three, but the damage had already been done. The Wildcats cut into the lead a few times, but the Hawks were always able to match them on the other end of the floor. Well, for most of the second half.

The closest this ever got was when Wildcats took advantage of a signature Hawkeye scoring drought in the second half to rip off a 10-2 run that brought the game within 9 with under five minutes remaining. A big part of this was Scottie Lindsey, who outperformed Bohannon, going 911 from beyond the arc. He finished with 32 points, but it didn’t matter. Every time the Hawks faced a run, they responded and pushed the lead back to double-digits. It’s amazing what building a lead can do!

In a season where wins, and especially blowout ones, were few and far between, this was a fun game. Thanks seniors.

OTHER ITEMS OF NOTE/INTEREST:

• Dom Uhl got the start on senior night, as one of two seniors (including Charlie Rose), but didn’t play a huge role. He didn’t log a single point and only took one shot in his limited minutes, but he did log a couple blocks and a couple rebounds.
• Charlie Rose got some late-game action, too. He got a nice ovation as he came on the court for the game’s last 11 seconds.
• I feel like I write the same sentence every time I recap but Luka Garza once again performed extremely well, finishing the night with 18 points and 5 rebounds. The freshman developed really well over the course of his rookie campaign and I’m really hoping he doesn’t go through a sophomore slump next year. It’s fun to watch him dunk, too.
• Isaiah Moss sort’ve picked up right where he left off from his scorching finish to the Minnesota game. He hit his first three point attempt of the game, and had a nice game with 12 points. Here’s to hoping he can finish the season on a high-note and keep it up next season; this team needs a weapon like him.
• Pretty quiet game for Tyler Cook. He logged his seventh double double of the year with 14 points and 11 rebounds, and also tallied a career high 6 assists. Along with a nice dunk:

• Bohannon is the only D1 player with 150+ assists and 80+ three-pointers as a freshman and sophomore IN THE LAST 25 YEARS
• Northwestern only attempted seven free throws to Iowa’s 23. lulu
• It was Iowa’s first win of the year in which it didn’t score 80+ points.

Well, that’s it for the regular season, folks. The Big Ten season sucked, but the Big Ten Tournament awaits in Madison Square Garden (why). The Iowa win tonight earns them the 12 seed in the tournament. They’ll face Illinois in the 12-13 match on Wednesday evening at 4:30 p.m. CT on BTN.

You’ll remember that Iowa beat the Fighting Illini in their last matchup, so hey, they might make it past the first round for once!

Regardless of that outcome, this one was a good one. Winning games is fun!