Bennett Stirtz carries Iowa past Western Illinois 77-58

Bennett Stirtz scored a game-high 24 points with seven assists as Iowa earned a 77-58 victory over Western Illinois on Friday night in Iowa City.

Alvaro Folgueiras scored 13 points with five rebounds and five assists off the bench, while Stirtz went 4 of 7 from 3-point range. Iowa held a 29-6 edge in bench points.

Cooper Koch and Isaia Howard each chipped in eight points for the Hawkeyes (2-0).

Isaiah Griffin scored 21 points and Tyran Cook tallied 10 points for Western Illinois (0-2)

The Leathernecks sprinted to an early 7-3 lead after a layup by Cook. But the Western Illinois lead would be short lived as Stirtz drilled his first 3-pointer of the game to give the Hawkeyes an 8-7 lead less than four minutes into the game.

When the Hawkeyes came out of the media timeout, they ripped off an 11-2 run that Stirtz punctuated with a dunk as Iowa took a 19-9 lead with 11:10 left in the first half.

An airball by Western Illinois' Lucas Lorenzen was caught by Francis Okwuosah under the basket and laid in just before the shot clock expired as the Leathernecks trailed 36-28 at the 3:25 mark.

WIU closed the first half on a 5-2 run to trail 41-33 at halftime.

In the second half, the Iowa defense tightened with the Hawkeyes forcing 14 turnovers in the game that they converted into 24 points. The Hawkeyes committed seven turnovers.

A 9-2 run from Iowa was capped by a Kael Combs layup that stretched the Hawkeyes' advantage to 60-43 with 11:18 to play.

A two-hand slam from Howard on the fast break put the game out of reach as Iowa took a 64-44 lead with 8:43 remaining. Howard fought for a loose ball on the defensive end, gave it up and ran the floor for the decisive jam.

A floater from Griffin cut the Iowa lead to 69-51 with less than five minutes to play before both teams emptied their benches.

-Field Level Media