Hawkeyes Roll to 7th Win; Down Coyotes, 87-63

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Dec. 4, 2012

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IOWA CITY, Iowa — Four players scored in double figures to lead the University of Iowa men’s basketball team to a 87-63 victory over South Dakota on Tuesday night on Mediacom Court inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The win runs the Hawkeyes’ record to 7-2 this season.

Sophomore Aaron White led all scorers, making 7-of-11 field goal attempts en route to 21 points. The forward went 6-of-6 from the charity stripe and had six rebounds. Junior Roy Devyn Marble finished with 14 points, eight rebounds and three assists.

Freshman Mike Gesell netted 12 points on 5-of-11 shooting to go along with four assists, and freshman Adam Woodbury had 10 points and six boards. Freshman Anthony Clemmons finished with four points and eight assists to zero turnovers in 21 minutes.

The Hawkeyes, who had 11 players score, also got a spark from sophomore Gabriel Olaseni off the bench, as the forward scored eight points on 3-of-4 shooting, while pulling down a career-best nine rebounds.

“Gabe was terrific,” said UI head coach Fran McCaffery. “What he did is he played relaxed. He didn’t make any mistakes. You could see in his face he was playing relaxed, and that was good to see.”


1st 2nd Final
South Dakota (4-5) 32 31 63
Iowa (7-2)
45 42 87
? Box Score | Attendance: 11,269
Statistical Leaders
? Aaron White – 21 points, 6 rebounds, 7-11 FG
? Roy Devyn Marble – 14 points, 8 rebounds
? Mike Gesell – 12 points, 4 assists, 5-11 FG
Stats at a Glance
USD IOWA
FG Percentage 34.5 44.7
3-Point FG Percentage 40.9 12.5
FT Percentage 84.2 89.5
Total Rebounds 31 50
Points in the Paint 14 54
Points off Turnovers 7 23

After clinging to a 30-29 lead in a tightly contested first half, the Hawkeyes broke the game open with a 27-7 run over a seven minute stretch to close the first and start the second half. Iowa pushed its lead to 15 on a Marble jumper at the 16:35 mark and an Eric May jumper pushed the margin to 19 (57-38) with 14:03 to play.

The Coyotes trimmed the margin to 13 (59-46) with 12:12 remaining, but the Hawkeyes responded with 14 of the next 18 points to put the game away. Junior Zach McCabe’s 3-pointer — Iowa’s first of the game — at the 9:12 mark stretched the lead to 20, Olesani’s dunk made it 73-50 and a pair of White free throws gave Iowa its biggest lead at 75-50 with 5:33 to play.

The Hawkeyes dominated action in the paint, outscoring the Coyotes, 54-14, and Iowa had a 23-7 advantage in points off turnovers. Iowa shot 44.7 percent (34-of-76) from the game, but converted just 2-of-16 3-point attempts. The Hawkeyes were +19 on the glass, out rebounding South Dakota, 50-31, and the team had 20 assists.

“We have good shooters,” said May, when asked if he’s worried about the team’s 3-point shooting woes. “I am confident we’re going to get it going. It’s good we were able to battle through that and still get the win.”

The Coyotes finished the game with a 34.5 field goal percentage with nine of their 19 makes coming from long range — six of which came in the first half.

Iowa jumped out to an 8-2 lead over the first two and a half minutes and it led 18-11 courtesy of a White dunk at the 14:19 mark. The three ball, however, was the neutralizer, as three of the Coyotes’ next four field goals came from distance to even the tally at 22 with 10:43 left in the half.

“They got open 3s right off the bat off of our press,” said McCaffery. “We were underneath them a little bit too much early. That’s how they got six 3s in the first half, so that was disappointing.

“It all started with poor execution with our defensive pressure at full court. Then they got going a little bit. To their credit, they were executing. They weren’t coughing it up or turning it over against the press or anything like that. They were getting shots.”

South Dakota took its only lead courtesy of Karim Rowson’s free throw at the 7:42 mark before White and Gesell had back-to-back field goals to put the Hawkeyes up 28-25. With the score 30-29, Iowa used a 15-0 run over a four minute stretch to build a 45-29 advantage.

Woodbury opened the spurt with a left-handed hook shot to make the score 32-29 before Gesell followed with a pair of free throws to push the lead to five. Marble and White followed with dunks to stretch the lead to nine, junior Melsahn Basabe’s three-point play made the score 43-29, and Gesell’s layup capped the spurt, giving the Hawkeyes a 16-point lead.

Iowa shot 47.4 percent over the first 20 minutes, making 18-of-38 attempts. South Dakota was 11-of-29 (37.9 percent) with six of their field goals coming from long range.

The Hawkeyes (7-2) return to action Friday at 7 p.m., hosting Iowa State in an Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series matchup inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.