Iowa crushes Wichita State in AdvoCare Invite 7th-place game

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Jarrod Uthoff had his most complete game of the season Sunday, leading Iowa to an 84-61 rout of Wichita State to claim seventh place in the AdvoCare Invitational.

Uthoff scored 22 points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked five shots.

Adam Woodbury added 15 points, Mike Gesell had 14 and Peter Jok finished with 12 as the Hawkeyes led from start to finish in the morning contest.

Wichita State (2-4) was playing without All-American guard Fred VanVleet, who sat out all three tournament games with a hamstring injury. In addition, the Shockers were missing forward Anton Grady, who is recovering at a nearby hospital from what doctors describe as 'a spinal cord concussion,” which occurred after a collision with an Alabama player in Friday's game.

Following the game, Wichita State Coach Gregg Marshall said Grady, who was walking at the hospital with assistance, would fly home with the team.

'Anton is in great spirits,” Marshall said. 'His mom was there. I know that he's had some great care. I think we're out of the woods as far as his injury goes. Now it's just a matter of him rehabbing. What comes next after that, I don't know.”

Eric Hamilton led the Shockers with 14 points. Ron Baker, who entered the contest averaging 20.2 points, was held to a season-low seven.

Iowa (4-2) won for the first time in the tournament at the HP Field House on Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports complex. The Hawkeyes appeared to enjoy the 10 a.m. tip-off as they shot 54 percent (28-52) from the field and 44 percent (8-18) from beyond the arc.

'We played three really good teams with relatively short practice,” said Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery, who got his 100th win at the school. 'We got good shot opportunities. No one panicked on offense. There was no panic (after the first two losses). We have veteran players who understand how to handle losses.”

Uthoff, who had his third 20-point game this season and seventh overall, scored 13 first half points to help Iowa take a commanding, 40-21 halftime lead.

The Hawkeyes stretched the lead to 31 twice in the second half before the Shockers staged an 18-2 rally to close the gap to 66-51. Jok, though, hit a jumper from the corner for his first field goal of the day and the Hawkeyes never looked back.

'We made some mistakes down the stretch that obviously we'd like to have back, but we were able to stabilize things,” said Woodbury, who had seven rebounds.

The Hawkeyes had experienced early leads in each of their previous games at the tournament before losing to Dayton and Notre Dame, respectively. Facing the injury-depleted Shockers, though, Iowa was poised to stake a lead and increase it.

'We play the best competition any time of the year, and that's where you get better,” Gesell said. 'I was very proud of my teammates. We beat a very good Wichita State team.”

Offensively, the Hawkeyes soared from Gesell's 3-pointer 19 seconds into the game until Uthoff's jumper off Gesell's ninth assist of the game with 1:28 left to play.

In addition to Iowa's top four scorers, Nicholas Baer came off the bench and was instrumental in helping stretch the Hawkeyes' early 10-point lead to an 18-point advantage, capping an 8-0 run with one of his two 3-pointers on the day that gave Iowa a 29-11 lead with 6:32 left in the first half. Baer finished with eight points.

Iowa stretched the advantage to as many as 22 points in the first half before a shot by Wichita State's Ty Taylor II from a few feet behind midcourt swished at the buzzer.

The Hawkeyes are 116-36 against current members of the Missouri Valley Conference. It's the program's most games against a conference outside the Big Ten.

Iowa will host Florida State at 8:20 p.m. Wednesday (ESPNU) in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.