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Alvaro Folgueiras helps Iowa men’s basketball team overwhelm Bucknell, 94-39
Junior forward scores a season-high and Iowa career-high 17 points to please Casey’s Center crowd in Des Moines
Dec. 20, 2025 9:22 pm
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DES MOINES - The hometown kid began this game with a bang. For the other team.
But it was the kid from Spain that brought the Iowa Hawkeyes back from a very early deficit and eventually to what always was assumed was going to be a blowout victory. That sounds kinda weird, right?
Alvaro Folgueiras scored an Iowa career-high 17 points as it overwhelmed Bucknell, 94-39 before 8,177 fans at Casey’s Center.
The Hawkeyes (10-2) have the holidays off, their next game coming Monday, Dec. 29, at Carver-Hawkeye Arena against UMass-Lowell. Considering the uncertainty going into the season with a new coach and virtually new roster, it should be a good Christmas for these guys.
“Early they hit those couple of shots, and then our defense was able to get going, get some deflections and some easy buckets,” said Iowa Coach Ben McCollum. “Then they weren’t in transition as much, so we were able to kind of control the game. We didn’t get a grip early, but they are a good team. They are going to win a lot of games in their league.”
Whether it was looking ahead to break or something else, Iowa had a less-than-good first four minutes. OK, it was a bad start.
Bucknell (3-10) shot out to a 10-2 lead, buoyed by a pair of opening 3-pointers by forward Ruot Bijiek. The first of those made treys by the West Des Moines Valley High School grad came from the logo, the MidAmerican Energy logo, to be specific, about 25 feet out.
With the crowd a tad bit antsy, Iowa righted the ship with a 17-0 run that put it in the lead for good.
“We just weren’t playing very well early,” said McCollum. “They made a couple of really good plays to that kid (Bijiek). He made tough shots, a couple of tough 3s. We were down 10-2? They just hit us in the mouth to start, woke us up.”
Folgueiras was integral in that telltale run, coming off the bench for 10 points. After Bucknell finally ended the Hawkeyes’ run, the junior transfer from Robert Morris and last season’s Horizon League MVP, nailed another trey for a personal 10-0 scoring run.
He ended the first half with 15 points, only one fewer than his previous Iowa best of 16, that coming Nov. 18 against Southeast Missouri State.
“Sometimes those early shots, I make them,” Folgueiras said. “I’ve got to keep doing good things for our team ... I’m happy for that.”
Iowa’s defense forced Bucknell into 13 first-half turnovers, with the Hawkeyes scoring 22 points off them. They finished with an amazing 40-3 advantage in that latter department, taking a 43-21 lead into halftime.
Bucknell scored 10 points the first 3:37 of this game and 29 the rest of it. Amazing.
“I’d just say (it was) staying to our defensive principles,” said Iowa’s Isaia Howard, who had seven of Iowa’s 17 steals. “Just staying together as a team and keeping the heat on the ball, trying to get deflections and ball pressure from everyone. Just staying together defensively as a team.”
“It’s just what he is, who he is. That energy and effort, that kind of impose-your-will kind of mentality,” McCollum said of Howard. “He is what our program is, in my mind. Brings an edge to him, brings a fight. He doesn’t have bad days in practice. And he’s only a sophomore, so the sky’s the limit for his ability. He brings a lot of juice for us off the bench, and he did that tonight.”
The Hawkeyes’ other double-figures scorers were Tavion Banks (16) and Kael Combs (13).
The crowd for this “neutral site” event was lively the entire game. There was even a “Let’s Go Hawks!” chant with just over two minutes to go.
Iowa led at the time 88-36.
“It was dope,” Howard said. “We had a lot of fans come out, and we really appreciate that. It was a lot of fun to see all the fans out. It just brings a lot of energy when we have a lot of fans in the arena.”
“I know the Hawkeyes are really big all over the state, and it was cool to see that,” Folgueiras said. “It was special. The game didn’t really start our way, but (the fans) were there, they were loud.”
Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com
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