Iowa men’s basketball team beats Ole Miss, 74-69, to improve to 6-0

(This story was written in Cedar Rapids.)

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Iowa’s men’s basketball team answered its first late-game challenge of the season with aplomb Tuesday, and defeated Mississippi 74-69 at Acrisure Arena.

The Hawkeyes improved to 6-0 and set up an Acrisure Series final Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. (CT) against the winner of Tuesday’s late Utah-Grand Canyon game.

Iowa senior guard Bennett Stirtz scored 29 points, 18 after halftime. He made 6 of 8 three-pointers. It tied his career-high for 3-pointers in a game.

“That was good coaching,” Iowa Coach Ben McCollum said tongue-in-cheek on the Hawkeyes Radio Network postgame show. “Get the ball to 14 (Stirtz) and just let him shoot threes. It was amazing.

“Even Dolph (Gary Dolphin) can coach that up. Get the ball to the guy that makes it.”

The game featured 10 ties and nine lead-changes, but Iowa took the lead for good on a Cooper Koch score with 7:08 left.

The Hawkeyes grew the lead to 68-60 thanks to consecutive baskets by Isaia Howard, his only two scores. The Rebels got no closer than four points after that.

Iowa made just one second-half turnover, that on an offensive foul by Stirtz with 18 seconds to go.

Redshirt freshman wing Koch matched his career-high with 14 points, and doubled his career-high in rebounds with 10.

Senior AJ Storr, formerly of St. John’s, Wisconsin and Kansas, had 22 points for Ole Miss.

The first half ended in a 31-31 tie when Mississippi’s Kezza Giffa sank a corner 3-pointer at the buzzer, the Rebels’ first three of the game.

Ole Miss took a 22-18 lead, its largest of the game, with 5:07 left in the half. Iowa had a 9-0 run in the space of 2:02 immediately afterward.

Iowa outrebounded the Rebels, 30-29. The Hawkeyes, formerly the nation’s leader in field goal percentage, shot just 42.9 percent Tuesday. And, Ole Miss had seven blocked shots to Iowa’s one.

It didn’t matter.