Unranked Wisconsin stayed hot on Wednesday night, upsetting No. 8 Iowa 67-59 in Iowa City.
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Iverson almost tied his career-high with nine points and showcased three impressive dunks, one of which was an NBA All-Star caliber windmill dunk in the second half.
Zak Showalter’s layup with 1:15 left put Wisconsin ahead 64-58, and a steal and two free throws by Koenig put the game out of reach.
Despite finishing with 11 points, Uthoff shot 3-of-12 from the floor and was in foul trouble for most of the evening.As a team, Iowa finished shooting an anemic 18-of-55 shooting and missed 14 of its last 16 shots in the game.In the first half, the bright spot for Iowa was junior guard Peter Jok scoring 17 of the Hawkeyes’ 34 first-half points and doing so on 4-of-7 shooting, including 3-of-4 from behind the arc.
Iowa, meanwhile, got just 4 points contributed from their bench.
Freshman Charlie Thomas, who had a total of two points his previous five games (38 minutes), contributed five points, three rebounds and a block in seven minutes.
Uhl’s drop-off has been crushing for Iowa, which relied on the sophomore forward’s big shots early in league play.
The Wisconsin Badgers will not be one of those teams on pins and needles wondering if they’re going to the Big Dance, though, because they’re now a lock. MI will travel to Wisconsin for a huge game Sunday in Madison.
According tooddsmakers at RealBets Iowa is the favorite at home tonight, as the Hawkeyes are getting odds of -8 points against Wisconsin. The teams were so evenly matched that no team led by more than 3 points in the final 11 minutes of the half. Over the last five games, there have been only two games where the junior has made multiple shots from the field over the first 20 minutes. They understand who they are.
Iowa has now lost three of its past four games, including a bad loss at Penn State. Iowa is holding teams to 40.9 percent shooting from the field, which ranks fifth in the Big Ten. Jok scored 17 in the first half but was limited to four in the second.
Statistically, Iowa remains one of the Big Ten’s best perimeter defenses, ranking second in 3-point percentage (30.4 percent). Iowa again had little production from the bench, just four points. The Wisconsin Badgers massively increased their chances of making the NCAA tournament field with a big victory over the Iowa Hawkeyes.
The Musketeers (25-3, 13-3) led most of the way in the first matchup of Top 5 teams since the Big East was reconfigured, pulling away at the end against the only team they’d never beaten in league play. It is Senior Night for the Hawkeyes, who will recognize Peschel, Nicole Smith, and Claire Till. The Wolverines would go on a 10-2 run to take a 6 point lead, their largest of the night.
“I thought Mike did a lot of good things, but he’s not shooting as well”, McCaffery said.
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“We need (Nicholas) Baer, Dom (Uhl), Brady (Ellingson) to step up and take some of the pressure off of Jarrod and Pete because Woody (center Adam Woodbury) will go back and get it for you”, McCaffery said.
