Luka Garza impresses again as Iowa dominates Swiss All-Stars

BADEN, Switzerland — So far, in two games in Europe, Iowa men's basketball freshman Luka Garza has failed to disappoint.

Garza followed up 17 points and 10 rebounds in the Hawkeyes' opener against the German All-Stars on Tuesday with 24 points and six rebounds on Thursday against the Swiss All-Stars — 22 and 5 of which came in 10 minutes of action in the first half.

The Washington, D.C. product shot 8 of 12 from the field and 7 of 7 from the free throw line, and helped Iowa to a 125-56 victory in their second of four games on the trip. After the opener in Germany, Coach Fran McCaffery said the forward's 'energy is infectious.'

That was backed up Thursday.

'I felt like I ran the floor well and got some easy buckets in transition in some quick post-ups,' Garza said after the game in audio provided by Iowa Athletics. 'I was also hitting the glass really hard. I'm learning more and more about my teammates with each game.'

Garza's 11 minutes Thursday were part of a strategy by McCaffery for this European trip in which, 'everyone will start at least one game; everyone will sit at least one game.'

McCaffery said before the team left that they weren't going to be concerned with exactly who starts and how much they play just yet, rather they'd take a broad approach to experiment a bit and see who fits best with whom. In the first half on Thursday, all 10 Hawkeyes that played saw 10 minutes of action.

By the end, six Hawkeyes were in double figures — Ryan Kriener (14 points, six rebounds), Connor McCaffery (13 points, five assists), Christian Williams (12 points, eight rebounds), Tyler Cook (10 points, five rebounds) and Isaiah Moss (10 points, four rebounds).

Jordan Bohannon was on his 'sit' game, while Cordell Pemsl and Maishe Dailey were held out with injuries.

'What we're doing is, we decided to try to do an equal dispersement of playing time and not get worked up on who might start down the road,' McCaffery said. 'We're also looking at different combinations of players. Everybody on this trip will play three out of the four games. Some will play more because Cordell and Maishe are hurt.'

The Hawkeyes are set to spend one more day in Lucerne, Switzerland before traveling to Italy on Friday for the final leg of its trip. Iowa plays the Milan All-Stars on Saturday at 1 p.m. for the third of four games.

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