Sunday's college basketball: Garza scores 17, No. 5 Iowa routs Northwestern 96-73
Evanston, Ill. — Luka Garza had 17 points and 10 rebounds in just 24 minutes, and No. 5 Iowa rolled to a 96-73 victory over Northwestern on Sunday.
Joe Wieskamp had 16 points and CJ Fredrick added 13 as the Hawkeyes (12-2, 6-1 in the Big Ten) won their fifth straight. Iowa and Michigan are tied for the conference lead.
Garza, who entered averaging 27.6 points, sat out the final 12 minutes because of the lopsided score. He was 7-for-12 from the field and scored all of his points in the first half.
“Luka was not quite as dominant as he always is,” Wieskamp said. “But he was getting double-teamed and he was finding open guys. Teams have to respect Luka in the post. If they double-team him, we have a lot of guys open.”
Pete Nance had 16 points and Boo Buie added 12 for Northwestern (6-6, 3-5), which dropped its fifth in a row.
“We knew what we were facing. They’re truly one of the elite teams,” Wildcats coach Chris Collins said. “If you’re going to win, you have to play well on both ends and we fell short of that.”
Northwestern got off to a solid start and led 29-28 with just under eight minutes left in the first half on the strength of four 3s by Buie.
Iowa then took control with 13 straight points, six by Jack Nunge. The Hawkeyes led 49-37 at the break and opened the second half with a 13-2 run for a 62-39 advantage.
More Big Ten
►(At) Purdue 80, Penn State 72: Sasha Stefanovic led a balanced attack with 15 points, Trevion Willilams had a double-double and Purdue held off rusty Penn State.
It was Purdue’s first home game since Christmas Day and the first game for Penn State since Dec. 30 after four conference games were postponed due to coronavirus concerns across the league.
Eric Hunter Jr. scored 14 points for the Boilermakers (10-5, 5-3 Big Ten Conference), Williams had 13 points and 11 rebounds, Brandon Newman also had 13 points and Mason Gilles added 12.
Myreon Jones scored a career-high 23 points for the Nittany Lions (3-5, 0-4), who have lost four straight while starting a run of four games in seven days. John Harrar added a career-high 14 points with 14 rebounds and Izaiah Brockington scored 12.
Nebraska on hold
All Nebraska men’s basketball team activities will remain on hold for at least another week after 12 people associated with the program, including head coach Fred Hoiberg and seven players, tested positive for the coronavirus.
Nebraska officials said this week’s games against Minnesota and Iowa have been postponed and the schools will try to reschedule them. Officials haven’t decided whether additional games after Jan. 24 will be affected.
Hoiberg said he has been isolating himself at home since testing positive on Friday. He said he is experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 but his condition has improved since Saturday.
Top 25
►(At) No. 11 Houston 75, UCF 58: Quentin Grimes scored 18 points, Justin Gorham added 15 points and nine rebounds and Houston routed UCF.
Houston (11-1, 6-1 American Athletic Conference) has won four straight after a loss to Tulsa.
Jamille Reynolds scored 14 points for UCF (3-5, 1-4).
►No. 20 Virginia Tech 64, (at) Wake Forest 60: Tyrece Radford scored 20 points to help Virginia Tech hold off Wake Forest.
Radford made 6 of 7 shots, then went 6 for 6 at the foul line in the final 45.4 seconds for the Hokies (11-2, 5-1 Atlantic Coast Conference).
Ismael Massoud had 12 points for the Demon Deacons (3-5, 0-5).