Iowa Hoops: Stirtz scores career high 32 in 84-66 win at Oregon

The Iowa Hawkeyes (16-5, 6-4) snagged a win in the first half of their Pacific Northwest endeavor at Oregon (8-14, 1-10), 84-66. Bennett Stirtz had his best game in the black & gold with 32 points on 12/15 shooting. He went 4/6 from deep, added 6 assists, and sat for the final 1:47 in a game Iowa by double-digits for much of the second half.

A notable development after spending much of the season to this point on the bench was Brendan Hausen scoring 11 points in 16 minutes. Dude can put the ball in the hoop. It was also a get right game for Cooper Koch, who added 10 points. Alvaro Folgueiras was Iowa’s 4th player in double figures with 15 points.

Despite multiple mentions throughout the broadcast which centered on Tavion Banks approaching Chris Street free throw streak record, he did not make it to the line & scored just 4 points in 11 minutes.

Even though Stirtz missed his first attempt from the field, he settled in nicely with a pair of early assists before getting his own scoring going with a three to get Iowa an 18-17 lead. His next basket about 3 minutes later stretched the lead to 21-17.

After Oregon cut into the lead, Iowa went on a quick 8-0 run where shots just opened up around the rim. It stretched the lead to 29-19 as the Ducks scored just the two points across nearly 8 minutes of play. Stirtz and Hausen finished off the scoring in the final 4:00 of the frame and Iowa entered with the break with a 35-26 lead.

Hausen is doing some interesting things outside of stretching the defense. After his 3 with 10 seconds left in the half, he quickly found his matchup and forced Oregon to call a timeout to avoid a 5-second count. It almost backfired, as Dana Altman was in his bag on the play call and dialed up an open shot which did not fall.

The second half featured much of the same but Stirtz was able to get to the rim at will in pick & roll offense. Seeing him tonight looked like the first time he has been 100% in a good long while. It was the type of game Iowa needs from its best player at a (sleepy) road environment 2,000 miles away from home.

Whenever Oregon was able to cut into the lead, there Stirtz was getting a layup for himself or teammate – he scored or assisted on 19 of Iowa’s first 23 points in the second half as Iowa stretched the lead to 15 about halfway through the frame.

Amidst the Ducks’ final comeback attempt after cutting the Iowa lead to 9 with 6:32 remaining, Ben McCollum dialed up an open look for Cooper Koch, who looked confident hitting it and getting the lead back to 12.

It’s a game where there’s little to complain about. Oregon, without 2 of their best players, looks every bit of a 1-10 team. A couple walk ons got minutes throughout the course of action, including a start from Drew Carter.

Iowa shot 59% from the field, 46% from deep, turned it over only 5 times. Stellar numbers despite feeling at times like it could have been even better. They were 17/25 on layups which … is a lot of layup attempts (Oregon went 7/14).

Defensively, there is little to complain about. Oregon went 41% & 24%, though they were able to corral 13 offensive boards for 16 second chance points.

Next up: Wednesday, Feb 4th at Washington (10P CST !!!, Big Ten Network)