Defensive focus paces Iowa in consecutive wins

IOWA CITY - Fran McCaffery stood in front of reporters at Northwestern's Welsh-Ryan Arena one week ago and chided his team's early defensive effort in an overtime loss to Northwestern.

In the days that followed, Iowa's players renewed their defensive focus. Iowa held Rutgers to 32.7 percent shooting in an 81-47 blowout at Carver-Hawkeye Arena last Thursday. Then, Iowa faced a greater offensive challenge at Nebraska on Sunday and came up with an even better performance.

Like Rutgers, Nebraska shot 32.7 percent from the field. But in the first half, the Cornhuskers hit only seven of 31 shots and were one of 13 from 3-point range. Iowa was active defensively throughout the game in a 74-46 win, the Hawkeyes' largest margin victory in a Big Ten road game since 1945.

The Hawkeyes outscored the Cornhuskers 42-16 in the first half and held a 27-16 rebounding edge. Iowa shot 51.4 percent and knocked down four of five 3-point attempts. But it was the defensive effort that had the players talking afterward.

'You can't at all rely on your offense because your offense comes and goes,” Iowa senior Aaron White said. 'We made a lot of shots, we made a lot of jumpers in the first half. I think we shot 80 percent from 3, which is great. But even if we didn't shoot 80 percent from 3, we'd still be up because of our defense. So that's important.”

Iowa (17-10, 8-6 Big Ten) blanketed Nebraska's Terran Petteway and Shavon Shields from the opening tip. Iowa forward Jarrod Uthoff blocked Shields' first shot on Nebraska's first possession, which set the tone. The Cornhuskers scored only five points until a Petteway put-back with 8:27 left in the first half. Nebraska sank just two of its first 13 shots and went eight consecutive possessions without scoring.

After Nebraska put together a 9-3 run to cut its deficit to 21-14, Iowa cruised to a 21-2 run to finish out the half. Nebraska was scoreless on its final six possessions.

'We jumped on them right away,” Uthoff said. 'We had a great start. We really got into them on the defensive end. We've got a lot of stops in a row and went back at them on offense.

'They couldn't get any rhythm for the most part except for that little spurt in the first half. We locked them up.”

Petteway, who led the Big Ten in scoring last year, finished with 16 points but connected on five of 15 from the floor and was one of eight from 3-point range. He also had six turnovers.

Shields scored 25 in the teams' first meeting in Iowa City but was held to just three points on Sunday.

'We did a tremendous job on Petteway and Shields,” Iowa point guard Mike Gesell said. 'They're a handful. Our guys did a great job. Our rotations were very good (Sunday).”

l Comments: (319) 339-3169; scott.dochterman@thegazette.com