Iowa dominates Rutgers, gets first road win

On the last day of January, the Iowa men's basketball team finally got its first true road win — and did so emphatically.

Save for the double overtime loss at Nebraska, the Hawkeyes had not played a true road game in which they were within 10 points. In games at Purdue, at Northwestern and at Illinois, Iowa had found itself down 8-0, 8-0 and 10-0 to start, and never recovered.

But on Tuesday night in Pistcataway, N.J., Iowa poured it in early and often, ran away and then shut down Rutgers for an 83-63 victory — a second straight game and win without Jerry West Award finalist Peter Jok.

The Hawkeyes jumped out to a 26-6 lead early, at one point forced four straight turnovers and flipped the script on so many of the rough starts from the last month — including in the first game against Rutgers.

'I think they knew what we got the last time we played these guys; what kind of fight we got. We were ready,' Coach Fran McCaffery said to the Hawkeye Radio Network. '(Getting turnovers) gives you opportunities to run out and get baskets. It gets our running game going. We ran early. They hit us with their three-quarter court press and we attacked that the best we have all year. We got easy baskets there.'

Iowa (13-10, 5-5 Big Ten) backed up its well-rounded performance in Saturday's win at home against Ohio State by looking every bit as efficient and effective on offense, despite not having Jok and his 21 points per game.

Like the win against the Buckeyes, the offense worked so well thanks to ball movement that resulted in open shots. The Hawkeyes assisted on 24 of 30 baskets Tuesday night, though, an eye-popping 80 percent of its offensive production.

On the other end, where Iowa has clearly struggled the most this season, the defense was just as effective. The Scarlet Knights (12-11, 1-9) got 17 points from Deshawn Freeman and 16 from Mike Williams, but outside of that were shut down offensively. Iowa forced 17 Rutgers turnovers and held the Scarlet Knights to 39.1 percent shooting.

'Whether we were pressing, in our man or in our zone, it was effective,' McCaffery said in his radio interview. 'It was activity. It was attention to the game plan. It was off to the races.'

Four freshmen led the way for the Hawkeyes in scoring, yet another glimpse to a bright future ahead — as well as the present, apparently.

Jordan Bohannon led the way with 17 points and five assists, but most importantly had no turnovers. McCaffery said in his radio interview with Gary Dolphin after the game that Bohannon was 'essentially flawless,' as he went 6 of 9 from the field and 5 of 7 from 3-point range. Isaiah Moss had his first double-digit scoring effort since the Nebraska game, finishing with 11 points and three assists. Forward Tyler Cook added 10 points, five rebounds and two assists.

Other than Bohannon, McCaffery seemed most impressed with Cordell Pemsl, who came off the bench again for 15 points and seven rebounds. In the first matchup, Pemsl wasn't nearly as effective. That changed at Rutgers, and McCaffery lauded the work Pemsl did to make that happen.

'The beautiful thing about him — you go back to when we played these guys last time; he made some mistakes against a big, physical, long, athletic team,' McCaffery said. 'He just went to school. He watched the film and was ready this time. He made very few mistakes tonight.'

Not having Jok could've been disastrous for a team that was not in a great place one or two weeks ago. Instead, Iowa sits sixth in the Big Ten and has four full days off before coming home to get Nebraska in a rematch.

In Jok's absence, the distribution of production has been exactly what McCaffery was hoping for. The slow starts turned into the opposite Tuesday night, and it made Iowa a relaxed, confident team for the second straight game.

'I just couldn't be more proud of their attention to detail and their fight,' McCaffery said on the radio. 'It didn't matter what lineup was on the floor, and that's the key. Everybody contributed.'

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