Hawkeyes Down Western Illinois, 77-58

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The University of Iowa men’s basketball team defeated Western Illinois, 77-58, on Friday night on Mediacom Court inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The win moves the Hawkeyes to 2-0 on the season.

After trailing 7-3 early, Iowa responded with a 9-0 run over three and a half minutes to take a 12-7 lead. The Hawkeye defense forced five turnovers during that stretch, as the Leathernecks committed seven turnovers in their first 14 possessions.

Senior Bennett Stirtz connected from downtown to extend the Iowa advantage to 27-19 with eight minutes remaining in the first half. Moments later, a Stirtz steal and assist led to an Alvaro Folgueiras and-one finish that pushed the lead to double digits. Iowa carried a 41-33 edge into halftime.

The Hawkeyes shot 50 percent (14-of-28) from the field and 40 percent (6-of-15) from 3-point range in the opening half. Stirtz paced Iowa with 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting, while adding six assists and two steals. Folgueiras contributed 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting, along with three rebounds, three assists, and three steals.

Iowa broke the game open in the second half with a 10-1 spurt to go ahead 64-44, holding Western Illinois without a field goal for more than seven minutes. The Leathernecks missed seven straight shots during the stretch.

Stirtz led all scorers with 24 points on 7-of-11 (.636) shooting, including 4-of-7 (.571) from beyond the arc. The Liberty, Missouri, native went a perfect 6-of-6 from the free-throw line and added seven assists and two steals in 40 minutes.

As a team, Iowa shot 52 percent (26-of-50) from the field, 40 percent (10-of-25) from 3-point range, and 75 percent (15-of-20) from the free-throw line. The Hawkeyes’ defense limited Western Illinois to just 27 percent (6-of-22) shooting in the second half and 1-of-5 from deep, allowing only 25 points after the break.

HEAR FROM HEAD COACH BEN MCCOLLUM
“I’m actually prouder of this game than I am the first game. I think it’s more difficult for a team, when you’re not totally teed up, I thought we were pretty teed up, but it wasn’t like it was the other day. On top of it, their style of play, they don’t really pass a whole lot. They kind of just run the shot clock down, isolation, get a shot. It kind of sucks the life out of the game because you can’t get a run going. That was a great game plan by them. Defensively, they guard you but they sit four to five feet off you so you're kind of in between what your supposed to do. That was a great game plan. 

"I was proud of the fact that we weren’t at our best and we still won the game and won it by 20. It was fun. I appreciate the fans again. Let’s keep coming, let’s keep getting this thing going. Hopefully we’ll have some more runs, runs get the fans excited, so we certainly appreciate all that.”

GAME NOTES

• Stirtz finished with a season-high 24 points to lead the team for a second straight game.  He also had seven assists and two steals in 40 minutes.
  • It is Stirtz’s 34th career 20-point contest.  He has been in double figures in 11 straight games dating back to last season.
  • He finished 7-of-11 from the field with four 3-pointers – a season-high.
  • It is his 17th career game with 3 or more 3s.
  • He has had 5+ assists in both games and in 42 such games in his career.
  • Stirtz has played 40 or more minutes 42 times in his career.
• Folgueiras finished with 13 points – 11 in the first half -- on 5-of-7 shooting with one 3-pointer.  He also had five assists, five rebounds and three steals.
• After WIU shot 52 percent (13-of-25) in the first half, Iowa limited the Leathernecks to 27.3 shooting (6-of-22) in the second half.
  • WIU scored just 25 points over the final 20 minutes.
• Iowa finished with a 52.0 field goal percentage – shooting above the 50 percent clip in consecutive games.
• The Hawkeyes finished with a season-high 10 3-pointers – shooting 40 percent -- with six different players making at least one.
• Iowa’s bench outscored their WIU counterparts, 29-6.
• The team assisted on 21 of its 26 field goals in the game, while committing just seven turnovers.

UP NEXT
Iowa returns to action Nov. 14, hosting Xavier at 7 p.m. (CT) inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.  Tickets are available at hawkeyesports.com.