Hawkeyes stage shooting exhibition in men’s basketball rout of Truman State

IOWA CITY — Kris Murray scored 10 points in the span of one minute and 50 seconds.

Connor McCaffery made four straight first-half 3-pointers.

Dasonte Bowen, a first-year freshman, had eight assists and no turnovers.

And on and on. Iowa’s 118-72 men’s basketball win over Truman State Monday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena was an exhibition, all right. An offensive exhibition.

The Hawkeyes made 64.8 percent of their field goal tries, and showed they can still score without All-America Keegan Murray, who was busy Monday night helping the Sacramento Kings win at Charlotte. His brother, Kris Murray, had a Keegan-like flurry in the first half and finished with a game-high 24 points.

The taller, longer, better Hawkeyes got pushed hard in the first 12 minutes by the Bulldogs. Who, by the way, are coming off three consecutive NCAA Division II tournament appearances under current coach and former Iowa point guard Jeff Horner.

Starting five Iowans, Truman State of Kirksville, Mo., was within 34-31. Then Murray went on his own 10-0 run. His teammates picked up on that in powering to a 63-39 halftime lead behind 68.6 percent shooting.

“We have a lot of guys who can score and have big games,” Murray said. “I think that’s where we’re most deadly, when we share the ball a lot.”

The Hawkeyes have shooters. Six of them made at least two 3-pointers.

“If you’re running transition and you’re running motion and you’re moving the ball and nobody can shoot,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said, “then everybody on defense is going to be in the paint.

“As long as we’re unselfish, which we are, then you’re going to get open 3s. I can’t remember a 3 that we took that was a bad shot, that was contested, it was early in the clock.”

Iowa was 14 of 25 from that distance, numbers that will work every time.

Freshman guard Josh Dix of Council Bluffs let the inflated announced crowd of 9,428 know he is in contention to be a rotation player from the get-go. Dix played 12 minutes, scoring 8 points. After missing his first 3-pointer, he made his next two “without hesitation,” said his coach.

This is a player who broke the tibia and fibula in his right leg 10 months ago.

“I was smiling every shot he made,” said Bowen, Dix’s roommate. “It was exciting for me, so I know it was even more exciting for him.”

Bowen played 20 minutes in the absence of junior Ahron Ulis, suspended for this game. The Bostonian looked like a Big Ten player.

“I thought I played solid, I did my job,” Bowen said. “People probably wanted me to score a little more, but I think I facilitated. That’s what I do.”

Junior guard Tony Perkins scored 18 points. He started at point guard, had four assists and three steals. He also got what he said was his first technical foul since his junior year of high school in Indianapolis when he tapped his head a little too much to celebrate a Murray left-handed dunk.

“The way Kris dunked it, he deserved it, I guess,” Perkins said.

“TP got a tech, it wasn’t my fault,” Murray said. “When you’re head-tapping from half-court that’s probably going to happen. That’s a good teammate right there.”

Iowa starts the regular season next Monday at home against Bethune-Cookman.

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