IOWA CITY, Iowa – The 24th-ranked University of Iowa men’s basketball team defeated Michigan, 82-71, on Thursday night at the Crisler Center. Iowa avenged its only loss in the month of February to improve to 22-8 on the season and 12-7 in Big Ten play.
The Hawkeyes were lights out in the first half, with sophomore Keegan Murray and sixth year senior Jordan Bohannon each contributing three of Iowa’s seven first half 3s. Iowa took a seven-point lead into halftime and led by as many as 19 with 11 minutes remaining in the game.
The Wolverines battled back to just a seven-point deficit with 2:30 left to play, but sophomore Kris Murray drilled a clutch 3-pointer to put the Hawkeyes back up by 10. Michigan answered with a trey of its own, but Iowa would score the next six points to lock up the win in Ann Arbor.
It was a total team effort, with four Hawkeyes scoring in double-figures, including 19 points off the bench for Kris Murray. He shot 9-of-11 from the floor and registered six rebounds, two steals, one block, and an assist.
Twin Keegan Murray’s stat line was just short of identical, including 23 points on 7-of-9 shooting with seven rebounds. The five-time Big Ten Player of the Week honor hit 4-of-4 from 3-point range to go along with three assists, three blocks, and a steal.
Bohannon finished 5-of-7 from behind the arc and 4-of-4 from the line to contribute 19 points, matching Kris Murray for the second-most on the night for Iowa. Sophomore Tony Perkins had 13 points, four rebounds, one assist, and one steal on the contest.
Iowa shot 53 percent (30-of-57) from the floor, 58 percent (11-of-19) from 3-point land, and 92 percent (11-12) from the free throw line. The Hawkeyes led the game wire-to-wire.
QUOTING HEAD COACH FRAN MCCAFFERY
“I think we’re playing really well. I think we’re playing hard. I think we’re getting good play from a lot of different people. The one thing that we’ll always do is move and share the ball. You know, they played a lot of man, they played a lot of the matchup defense, so that changes some things in terms of movement and screening and cutting. For the most part we stayed confident. You knew they were going to make a run. They made a run, but we got enough stops and we got enough buckets to hold them off.”
NOTABLES
- Iowa has won eight of their last nine games, including five straight, dating back to Feb. 6.
- The Hawkeyes recorded their first win in Ann Arbor since 2016.
- All-America candidate Keegan Murray netted a game-best 23 points tonight to move up two spots on Iowa’s single-season scoring chart. Murray is now fourth with 676 points after surpassing Fred Brown and Roy Marble. The 676 points are the most by any Hawkeye sophomore in program history (previous best was 553 by Chris Kingsbury in 1996).
- Iowa has notched at least one victory over Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Indiana for the first time in the same season since 2006.
- Iowa improved to 18-2 this season when scoring 80+ points.
- Iowa is 3-0 in “Senior Night” games (at Nebraska, vs. Northwestern, at Michigan). The Hawkeyes will play their fourth “Senior Night” game on Sunday at Illinois.
- Nineteen of Iowa’s 22 wins have come by 10 points or more, including 11 by 20 points or more.
- Jordan Bohannon made four 3-pointers tonight moving into a tie for sixth place in NCAA history with 435 career 3-pointers. The 435 triples are the second most by a player from a major conference (457 by Duke’s J.J. Reddick).
- Iowa shot a season-best 57.9 percent (11-of-19) from 3-point range tonight, marking the third time in four games that the Hawkeyes sank double-digit 3-pointers. Keegan Murray (4-of-4) and Jordan Bohannon (5-of-7) were a combined 9-of-11 (.818) from long distance.
- The Hawkeyes missed only one free throw tonight (11-of-12, .917)
UP NEXT
No. 24 Iowa (22-8, 12-7) concludes regular season play on Sunday at No. 20 Illinois (21-8, 14-5). Tipoff is slated for 6:37 p.m. (CT) at the State Farm Center in Champaign, Illinois.