Iowa 86, Minnesota 71: Three Kings

Luka Garza had 33 points on 13-20 shooting, along with 5 boards and 3 assists to get revenge over the HATED Minnesota Gophers in a 86-71 win.

The first half featured a back-and-forth affair where Iowa led most of the time, but never comfortably.

Iowa was able to muzzle Marcus Carr early on, but Minnesota’s scoring was still able to find open doors by way of Both Gach and Liam Robbins, who combined for 18 points in the first half.

While Iowa had a tough time defending Robbins, the Gophers had their hands full with Luka Garza. Iowa’s big man had 15 first half points himself. Assisting him with the scoring load was Joe Wieskamp and Jordan Bohannon, who had 7 and 8, respectively. Bohannon connected on two of his first four threes, and Joe Wieskmap had a crucial three to break a 7-0 run for Minnesota as the first half came to a close.

The trio would end up combining for 72 points in the game.

Again, Minnesota scored 71.

Iowa looked to its bench early on, sending in Keegan Murray, Patrick McCaffery and Joe Toussaint at the under 13. It wasn’t the solve Fran was likely looking for, but the trio kept the status quo.

Iowa enjoyed an 8-0 run to start the second half, thanks to some beautiful passing from C-Mac, some vintage Bohannon, and a Garzilla performance.

Iowa quickly turned that 8-0 run into a 22-4 scoring deficit in its favor, and with 15 minutes to play enjoyed a 12-point lead.

Garza and Bohannon combined to score on six consecutive possessions for the Hawkeyes. Given that the shots from Christmas Night weren’t dropping for the Gophers (they ended 10-34 from deep, 25-71 from the floor), Minnesota found itself in a hole it couldn’t crawl out of.

It did get close, however. Closing in on six minutes to play, Minnesota went on a 10-2 run of its own to cut Iowa’s lead to five. Gach and Jamal Mashburn made back to back threes to poke Iowa’s eyes.

Then Luka Garza got angry.

Wieskamp hit a dagger with 60 ticks left to put Iowa up 83-71, and that would be that.

Bohannon hit a 3 after that. So it was super duper over. Game, Hawks.

The Rest

• Joe Wieskamp became the 50th Iowa Hawkeye to notch 1,000 career points today. He finished the day with 20 points, 6 boards and 3-3 clip from deep.
• In addition to his 19 points, Bohannon had 14 friggin’ assists. He went 4-7 from deep. He’s approaching the best version of Bohannon we’ve seen in his nine years on campus.
• Keegan Murray wasn’t spectacular today. And that is fine.
• Overall, Iowa’s bench was middling to bad. The Hawkeyes found just 9 bench points, though Jack Nunge had 10 boards. When you’ve got three guys playing like Iowa did, though, that doesn’t really matter.
• Carr, who had 30 against Iowa the first time around, put up just 13.
• Brandon Johnson, who had 26 against Iowa the first time around, put up just 13.