Jok rises to occasion in Iowa's overtime win

IOWA CITY — It wasn't very pretty basketball in Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Wednesday night.

The important part, though, was it was pretty enough for the Iowa men's basketball team to leave with an overtime victory in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge against Florida State, 78-75.

Through a slugfest, the prettiest moment came at the most crucial time. Junior guard Peter Jok, who had struggled — as everyone had — from the field for stretches, got a breather and came back on the floor with less than a minute to go.

His coaches put the ball in his hands, and he delivered with a clutch 3-pointer that ultimately carried his team to victory.

'I was struggling shooting, and Coach (Kirk) Speraw took me out and put Dom (Uhl) in so I could get my mind right,' Jok said. 'He came up to me and said, 'We're going to run a play for you. You need to make it.' I was like, 'I'm going to make it.'

'I went out there and made it.'

That he did. His 24 points led the Hawkeyes and took them to 5-2 this season. Coach Fran McCaffery was happy for Jok and his moment, but the biggest part was how the West Des Moines native responded in that moment when the rest of the game hadn't gone great.

'I'm really happy for him because he had a really good game. Even when he kicked it off his foot, he went back and got it and made a big play there,' McCaffery said. 'Then he got really tired and we took him out. That was critical to him being able to come back in and do what he did. He's just that kind of person. He's not afraid of the moment. He made a big shot.'

Fear is not in Jok's vocabulary.

Neither does he have a long memory where missed shots are concerned. The key factor to that final play was confidence, Jok said. Belief the shot would go in was as important as anything.

'I never think of the last shot. I don't care how many shots I miss, I'm going to keep shooting,' Jok said. 'The coaches and players, they had my back the whole game. They kept telling me it was going to fall. It was great to have them saying that and on top of that, I didn't lose any confidence. I kept shooting. I knew they were going to fall sooner or later.'

Just as important as the victory itself and Jok rising to the occasion in overtime was that it all came in a performance where the Hawkeyes knew they didn't play their best.

The Hawkeyes never were able to find a consistent rhythm on offense, and surrendered 46 points in the paint to a Seminoles squad that attacked the lane on nearly every possession and left a man in their offensive half on multiple occasions.

McCaffery and his players all said Florida State (4-2) is the most athletic team they've faced, with Anthony Clemmons taking it a step further, saying, 'that's the most (athleticism) we're going to see all year, throughout the whole Big Ten and all. That team is unbelievably good.'

Working around the size (centers Boris Bojanovsky and Chris Koumadje are 7-foot-3 and 7-foot-4, respectively) and quickness was difficult, but patience and perseverance were what got the Hawkeyes through.

Jok's big night was aided by Jarrod Uthoff adding 15, Adam Woodbury with 11 and Mike Gesell and Clemmons added 10 apiece. Iowa is learning a lot about itself as it goes, and with key individual performances spearheading winning team performances, there's a lot to be gained.

'You know, I think a win like this is going to benefit us in a lot of ways,' McCaffery said. 'We hung in there. You kind of come in at halftime, I think we were down one, and kind of surprised that we're only down one. But we made enough plays and we got enough quality minutes off the bench.

'I thought our execution down the stretch was pretty good. We played the zone about as well as you could play it but we couldn't get a rebound. They are so quick to the ball, and they were sending everybody obviously late. I thought we got the misses that we needed but they went back and got it. Some teams are really that good in that area. It's going to really help us.'

The Hawkeyes are back in action on Saturday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena at 2 p.m., hosting the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com