Hawkeyes get first road win of season with blowout of Indiana

Editor’s note: This story was written in Iowa

CEDAR RAPIDS — This week’s visit to the state of Indiana was a 50-50 deal for the Iowa men's basketball team.

A close, competitive loss Tuesday night at Purdue. A win Saturday afternoon at Indiana.

An impressive, smothering, dominating Quad 1 win.

Bennett Stirtz scored 27 points, Tavion Banks had a career-high 26, and the Hawkeyes never trailed in a 74-57 victory over the Hoosiers at Assembly Hall.

It’s the first road win this season for Iowa, which moved to 13-5 overall and 3-4 in the Big Ten Conference with seemingly manageable home games upcoming against Rutgers and USC. That Rutgers game is Tuesday night at 7:30 (Big Ten Network).

It’s also a victory over a Quad 1 opponent, which is important when you are trying to build a resume for the NCAA tournament. A Ben McCollum-coached team hadn’t lost three games in a row since 2013 (Northwest Missouri State).

No need to search for the last four-game losing streak now.

“Obviously, we want to win every game,” McCollum said postgame on the Hawkeye Radio Network. “I think if we look too far, obviously, from an external perspective, it's Quad 1 win on the road, and it's a big deal. From an internal perspective, it's just we made a few more winning plays down the stretch, and that's what we need to continue to grow and continue to do as this progresses, win or loss. We have to keep improving and keep getting better.”

Stirtz was simply superb, beginning scoring in this game with a driving hoop. He drained a 3-pointer shortly thereafter to give Iowa what turned out to be the lead for good 5-2.

The senior point guard has struggled at times of late, including regularly getting into foul trouble. But this was a masterpiece for him, going 3 of 5 from 3-point range and 10 of 11 from the free-throw line.

Iowa was 21 for 23 at the stripe, outscoring Indiana there by 10.

“I was just he attacked better,” McCollum said. “Did a better job of actually being physical on his drives instead of, you know, I think sometimes he fades away in his drives, so it looks as though he's, I don't know if he's flopping, but he's not.

“It's just that he's driving away from the ball and driving away from the goal. And you’ve got to drive downhill and get physical on those drives. You're not going to get any calls. And I thought he did a much better job of that tonight.”

Banks has continued to play through a bad case of the flu that made his lose 10 pounds. He helped Iowa put away the game late by scoring 11 of his team’s final 15 points.

He also had a game-high eight rebounds, going 9 of 9 from the free-throw line. His defense was part of a collective effort that held Indiana (12-6, 3-4) to 38-percent shooting overall and without a field goal for 9:09 of the second half.

Guard Tayton Conerway led the Hoosiers with 16 points, though he didn’t score the final 13-plus minutes in part because of a right ankle injury that hobbled him. Leading scorer Lamar Wilkerson was held to nine points, 11 under his season average.

“It felt great,” Banks told the Hawkeye Radio Network. “I know a couple of their guys, knew it was going to be a battle against each other. It was good to just take in some. We know that they’re a great team, so I just knew that I had to bring my ‘A’ game today.”

“We lost a couple games together, we’ve had our ups and downs, but we all stick together and still smile ... That togetherness is always going to be there with this team. Nobody puts their heads down, even the freshmen. Nobody quit. We just show up the next day in practice and kept encouraging each other.”

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