Iowa controls exhibition, pulls away for 20-point win

IOWA CITY - Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery took the path of moderate resistance when scheduling his exhibition this year.

McCaffery picked Division II Northwest Missouri State, a program filled with veterans, a good point guard and reputation for good defense. Sunday, McCaffery's Hawkeyes overpowered the Bearcats 79-59 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, but it wasn't the domination many might have expected. That's a good thing for McCaffery.

“You could schedule somebody that you know you're going to beat badly or you can schedule somebody that has juniors and seniors who are talented and a team that has an excellent coach,” McCaffery said. “It was not going to be an easy game; you knew it wasn't going to be an easy game when we scheduled it. But that's what I wanted for this team. I wanted us to be challenged, and we were in every way.”

Iowa controlled the exhibition from the tip and worked through multiple personnel combinations. Nine different players played more than 14 minutes, The play wasn't always crisp, but it usually was effective.

The Hawkeyes hit nearly half their shots, out-rebounded Northwest and had more assists (13) than turnovers (12). Iowa drove the ball to the basket and shot 31 free throws, making 25.

“We responded really well,” Iowa junior Eric May said. “Give them credit because they played really hard. It was a good team to play to figure out some things we needed to work on.”

At times Iowa had lapses but triggered a run each time in response. After Northwest cut Iowa's lead to 41-36 early in the second half, Iowa went on a 9-0 run. Freshman Aaron White provided a spark with an uncontested dunk at the basket.

On the next possession, point guard Bryce Cartwright drove for a layup. Guard Matt Gatens hit a 3-pointer and followed with a pair of free throws to give the Hawkeyes a comfortable 50-36 lead.

White, who entered the just seconds before his dunk, said he chose to dunk the ball after missing an easy layup with about 9:30 left in the first half.

“I had almost the same thing,” said White, who had eight points, five rebounds and four blocks. “A guy came over and I tried to lay it up, and I laid it up soft. So I told myself, ‘I'm going to dunk the ball next time. You can't lay it up at this level.' You've got to try to dunk every time and if you get fouled ... I was surprised nobody was there.”

Later in the second half Iowa scored on 10 consecutive second-half possessions to put the game out of reach.

Gatens, who led Iowa with 17 points, was pleased with the effort but wants to learn from Sunday's exhibition.

“Overall we improved in the second half,” he said. “We changed a couple of things at halftime. Obviously we'll look at the tape and see a few more things on defense, I believe. We need to tighten some things up.”

Iowa opens the season Friday against Chicago State at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

[nggallery id=677]