Nebraska slows but doesn't stop Iowa's Matt Gatens

LINCOLN, Neb. - Nebraska did everything it could to deny Matt Gatens the ball, and it almost worked.

Gatens hit only one of his first six shots from the field through the first 25 minutes and 4 seconds. Iowa held just a three-point advantage and were stagnant offensively. Then Gatens exploded to lead Iowa to its first road win since Jan. 4.

Gatens ignited an 18-5 run with two 3-pointers, and then punctuated it with a dunk to send the lead to 12 points. Iowa (16-14, 8-9 Big Ten) led by as many as 14 points before taking a 62-53 victory Wednesday at Devaney Center.

"My teammates were finding me in great position to shoot the ball," Gatens said. "I was open, and they were pretty much all over me in the first half. I got a couple of looks in the second half and took advantage of it. My teammates found me, and Bryce (Cartwright) found me on a dunk, and I found him a couple of times. He stepped up big."

Gatens, the Big Ten's co-player of the week, had scored at least 21 points in Iowa's last four games. Nebraska held him to 16 on 4-of-11 shooting.

To go along with Gatens' 3-pointers, Devyn Marble matched a career high with two 3-pointers during that run.

"For a (Gatens) that's coming in that was probably as hot as a player in the conference offensively, I thought we did a good job on him," Nebraska Coach Doc Sadler said. "We lost him that one time when we got it down to one and they hit the three 3s in a row. It started on a bad switch, it started out with him. To be honest with you, we weren't that disappointed that Marble shot those two, but he made them. That's nine points right there in three possessions.”

Iowa was lackluster on offense in the first half, shooting 37.5 percent. But Nebraska struggled itself, shooting 28.6 percent in the first half and 36.5 percent for the game.

"Luckily our defense was saving us during the slow start," Gatens said. "We'd go up four at halftime, and we felt like we could be up more than that. We still had control of the game and came out and we'd go up nine and then 14, but we couldn't get it to that next hump and go up 20. They kept fighting back, which is what you'd expect on Senior Day, and a lot of emotion.

"It was good to see our guys close it out, and I'd like to see us hit a few more free throws, but we still got the W. It was a great overall team victory."

Gatens now has scored 1,574 points and sits eighth all-time at Iowa. He's four points shy of Adam Haluska for seventh. Gatens also has 231 3-pointers, second-most in Iowa history behind only Jeff Horner (262). He plays his final home game Saturday against Northwestern.