Iowa men stymie Grand Canyon, 59-46, win Acrisure Classic title

(This story was written in Cedar Rapids.)

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Grand Canyon had a drought in the desert, caused by the Iowa men’s basketball team that is heading home with a championship.

The Hawkeyes improved to 7-0 by winning Wednesday night’s Acrisure Classic final, downing Grand Canyon, 59-46.

“What do they call it, a fistfight in a phone booth?” Iowa Coach Ben McCollum said on the Hawkeye Radio Network postgame show. “I was born in Iowa City and grew up in Storm Lake, Iowa. We know how to do that, don’t we?”

It was the fewest points an Iowa team allowed since 2016 when the Hawkeyes beat Northern Iowa, 69-46.

The Antelopes (4-3) went a period of 5:44 without scoring in the first half, and that wasn’t the worst of it. They didn’t score in the last 2:34 of the first half or first 5:29 of the second half.

Iowa led 37-24 with 12:52 to go in the game and never led by less than nine points after that. Hawkeye guard Isaia Howard scored 13 of his game-high and season-high 19 points in the game’s last 7:11.

Hawkeye forward Isaia Howard scored seven of his team’s points in a 9-4 run that elevated Iowa’s lead to 51-37 with 4:06 left, and guard Bennett Stirtz got a dunk off a Cooper Koch lead to bump the lead to 53-37.

Howard came into the game having made just 1 of 12 three-point tries this season, but knocked down three treys in the final 4:06.

“He was awesome,” McCollum said. “He knew it was just a matter of time. ... We weren’t overly concerned with it.”

GCU shot 40.5 percent and Iowa 40.4 percent from the floor, but the Hawkeyes got 22 points off 19 Lopes turnovers and made 15 free throws to GCU’s seven.

After the Lopes opened a 13-8 lead with 13:56 left in the first half, the Hawkeyes scored 13 of the game’s next 15 points for a 21-15 edge. They took their largest lead of the half on a Kael Combs basket with 1:04 left, and the 30-23 score stood until intermission.

Stirtz was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. He had 13 points and 5 assists Wednesday after scoring 29 in Iowa’s 74-69 win over Mississippi here the night before.

Iowa’s next game is its Big Ten-opener, at Michigan State Tuesday. The 11th-ranked Spartans meet No. 16 North Carolina Thursday afternoon in a matchup of 6-0 teams in Fort Myers, Fla.