Another bounce back for Iowa men’s basketball team, which rolls Western Michigan, 91-51

IOWA CITY - This was not Iowa State. Nor Michigan State.

Not even Maryland.

No disrespect to the Western Michigan Broncos. They were not the worst opponent Iowa’s men’s basketball team has played this season.

But when you’ve played ISU and MSU on the road and another Big Ten Conference foe at home in consecutive games, Sunday had to feel like an opportunity for the Hawkeyes to breathe a bit. With the danger of perhaps a letdown, of course.

Which there wasn’t. Iowa did as it wanted, when it wanted offensively in the first half, D-ed up on the other end of the court and strolled to a 91-51 non-conference win before 10,341 fans at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

As they did last week, the Hawkeyes successfully bounced back from a loss: that four-pointer Thursday night to fourth-ranked Iowa State. They were blown out almost two weeks ago by top-10 Michigan State, regrouped and gave Coach Ben McCollum his first Big Ten Conference victory a few days later, against Maryland.

Guess they call that some resiliency.

“We hear a lot of things like ‘Oh, you played well,’” Iowa’s Cam Manyawu said of the Iowa State game. “But at the end of the day, we lost. So we came back to practice and kind of treated it as just a new day. Try to figure out all the things we can work on to try and get better at those things in these games.”

Iowa (9-2) has this week off, its next game coming Saturday afternoon against Bucknell at Casey’s Center in Des Moines. It’s a 5 p.m. tip, with Big Ten Network handing TV duties.

“I thought we came out well. Offensively pretty good, defensively solid,” McCollum said. “Not elite energy, but (we) executed. Probably better execution than there was energy. The second half was good outside of the last 10 to 12 minutes. That was like, man, just pulled what little hair I have left. Anyway, it was a good game, good to bounce back. Now it’s get on to the next.”

The first half was a clinic offensively, as Iowa moved the ball so well to build a 52-16 halftime lead. The Hawkeyes had 16 assists and shot 65.6 percent from the field (21 of 32).

“The main thing was we were getting into our offensive release, getting ball screens, getting in the pocket,” said Manyawu, who finished the game with 11 points in just 13 minutes. “Then defensively understanding the scout and executing that at a high level.”

“I think we just did a great job of picking a few things to focus on this week in practice where we could kind of get them,” said Iowa’s Brendan Hausen. “And we attacked those things well today.”

Hausen had 13 points (including four 3-pointers) to join Bennett Stirtz and Alvaro Folgueiras in team-high scoring honors. Freshman Tate Sage continued his recent surge with 11 points as well.

With the large spread, Iowa was afforded the opportunity to rest point guard Stirtz, who is used to playing nearly the entire game. He played 22:59 here.

Hausen, meanwhile, has been a bit player but notched 19:01 of playing time.

“I’ve got a role on this team,” the Kansas State transfer said. “I feel like we’re a very elite team, a great team, and it’s my duty to uphold that role. Whatever the team needs, I’m here for. So if that’s four minutes, if that’s no minutes, if that’s being the best cheerleader on the bench, if that’s getting guys ready to play, that’s what I’m going to do.”

Jalen Griffith and Carson Vis led Western Michigan (5-6) with 11 points each.

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