Keegan Murray scored 26 points and grabbed 18 rebounds Monday night as No. 24 Iowa led almost wire to wire in an 82-61 rout of Northwestern in Iowa City.
Jordan Bohannon added 18 points for the Hawkeyes (21-8, 11-7 Big Ten) and Connor McCaffery hit for 17, going 5 of 9 from the 3-point arc. Iowa converted 13 of 35 3-point attempts and dominated the boards 50-35 while posting its seventh win in eight games.
Ty Berry came off the bench to score 19 points for the Wildcats (13-15, 6-13) and Ryan Young, another reserve, chipped in 10 points and seven rebounds. Northwestern got just 13 points from its starters, and point guard Boo Buie, the team’s second-leading scorer, played only six minutes before leaving with an illness.
The Wildcats canned only 37.5 percent of their shots from the field and were just 8 of 25 on 3-point attempts. They were particularly cold in the first half, making only 6 of 27 field-goal attempts and coughing up nine of their 15 turnovers.
Leading scorer Pete Nance was held to five shots and four points over 29 minutes. Nance, who collected eight rebounds, entered the game averaging 15 points.
Ahead by 19 at halftime, the Hawkeyes didn’t mess around in the second half. The lead grew to 25 inside the first minute on a three-point play by Murray and three free throws by Bohannon. The margin never dipped below 20 for the game’s remainder, even reaching 30 with three minutes to play.
Iowa set the tone quickly. After Nance scored to start the game, the Hawkeyes went on a 15-2 run, Murray’s alley-oop dunk off a Ahron Ulis assist capping it. Northwestern managed only one field goal in a stretch of nearly 9 1/2 minutes.
Iowa put the game away before halftime when it uncorked a 14-3 run that gave it a 31-11 lead after Murray stole the ball and scored on a slam dunk the other way with 3:46 left. The Hawkeyes took a 36-17 advantage to the break and never looked back.
–Field Level Media
