Tavion Banks & Bennett Stirtz led the Hawks with 20 in an up & down game against the Trojans
The Iowa Hawkeyes (15-5, 5-4) showed grit coming back from a 10-0 deficit to build a 17-point second half lead. Yet they let their foot off the gas and the USC Trojans (15-6, 4-6) capitalized on it to get a 1-point lead inside of a minute. Two Bennett Stirtz free throws gave Iowa the lead with 4.6 remaining and they avoided catastrophe when Kam Woods’ last second three was off the mark in a 73-72 win to eclipse .500 in conference play.
Stirtz and Tavion Banks, who is now 4 FTs away from tying Chris Street’s record of 34 straight makes, led the team with 20 points each. Alvaro Folgueiras had his best Big Ten game as a Hawk with 14 points and two key makes down the stretch.
The way the first half went, it felt like we were headed for a slugfest in the 50s or 60s. The Trojans came out firing – they’re now 3-2 on the road in conference play – behind Chad Baker-Mazara to get the 10-0 lead in just under 3 minutes of gameplay. Felt like maybe one of those nights where rust beats out rest after 8 days off. But Iowa dug deep with their defense & rebounding despite missing shots and turning it over on the other end.
Cooper Koch hit Iowa’s first basket to cut the lead to 14-6 but the Hawks still struggled to string positive possessions together. Defense sprung Iowa, with Banks having a layup & dunk back-to-back followed by a Folgueiras transition layup to cut it to 4.
Baker-Mazara quickly hit a pair of 3s to stretch USC’s lead back to 10 with 5:31 remaining in the half. But the defense kept grinding & held the Trojans to just 2 baskets the rest of the way while Iowa went on a 9-0 run capped off by a Koch steal/assist to Stirtz for a breakaway dunk for a 1-point lead.
USC got a basket on their final possession of the half to get the lead back in their favor but a 28-27 deficit felt like a solid outcome considering the start. The Hawks forced 10 turnovers during the frame & held them to only a pair of free throws despite the Trojans’ reliance on them (as Eric Musselman pointed out in his halftime interview).
Stirtz got the second half going with a three pointer to regain the lead but then the half turned into the Banks Show. A 3. A layup. 4 straight free throws. Back-to-back threes from Isaia Howard & Stirtz brought the lead to 15. A blowout in the making despite the slow start. What a game!
The game hovered in that 15-17 point lead range for a few minutes. Banks & Folgueiras hit a pair of 3s. USC never really strung anything together. Cam Manyawu had a putback to get it to keep it at 15 with a little over 5 minutes remaining and that kinda felt like it was enough. We’d coast to the end.
Banks drew his Then Kam Woods found something within him. Maybe it was losing to a former Robert Morris teammate in Folgueiras that set him off but he went to drive after drive, got some nice foul calls along the way, and scored 12 straight points in about 2 minutes to bring the game to 66-63, Iowa.
Yikes.
Folgueiras countered with a huge three pointer and then traded layups with Woods to get it to 6 again. Woods then hit his second three of the season (and game) to cut the lead in half at 1:33. Sheeeet. Iowa followed it up with a rough offensive possession where the only shot they could muster was a Folgueiras prayer.
Woods drew a foul on a pick and roll where Manyawu forced him to the sideline. Lead now 71-70. Double yikes. Stirtz got a decent look from 3 but couldn’t convert. The Trojans went back to Woods who finally missed a layup but Folgueiras’ help defense left his guy uncovered for a cutback with 9 seconds left. Full blown catastrophe.
Stirtz hustled the ball up the court, likely to call a timeout before refs bailed Iowa out with an honestly inexplicable foul call right in front of Ben McCollum. He hit them both.
After a USC timeout, they dialed up the game-winning play from the Villanova-UNC title game but Woods didn’t hit the trailing Baker-Mazara. He took a contested three and … thankfully missed. Iowa avoided the Woodshed 33 points, 27 in the second half.
Really just felt like a Big Ten basketball game. No lead is safe. Stretches of really solid D & excellent offense. Spotty refereeing throughout. Despite missing that final 3, I thought Stirtz had an excellent game. He covered Baker-Mazara for the bulk of the second half and the Trojan finished with 7 turnovers on the game and just 2 points in the half.
It must be said that this is the second time Iowa took their foot off the gas against a team for LA who had a point guard go off with … pretty simple offense to tighten the game up. Hopefully it’s a lesson Iowa can learn again the easy way before they learn it the hard way by actually losing a game.
Next up: Sunday, 2/1 at Oregon at 6:00p CST (FOX Sports 1)
Category: General Sports
