Bennett Stirtz put the Hawkeyes on his back with a game-high 25 points to give Iowa a massive Quadrant 1 win.
In a game that mimicked the rough-and-tumble style from the 1980s, Iowa basketball pulled out a 57-52 victory over rival Nebraska at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Tuesday.
Star point guard Bennett Stirtz put the Hawkeyes on his back, scoring a game-high 25 points on 8/22 shooting.
The Hawkeyes improve to 19-7 overall and 9-6 in Big Ten play with the win, and its their third Quadrant 1 triumph of the season.
First Half
Iowa fans chanted profanities at former Hawkeye and current Nebraska guard Pryce Sandfort, and he responded by scoring the game's first field goal. The Hawkeyes struggled to generate offense early, but Cooper Koch broke the seal with a personal 5-0 run to ignite the hostile crowd in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
The hostility remained for much of the early going, where Nebraska held a 12-9 lead. Iowa made just 3 of its first 8 field goal attempts to begin the game, a stretch that featured unselfish play that was far beyond Ben McCollum's liking.
Ex-Hawkeye great Aaron White, making his first appearance in Carver-Hawkeye since his playing days ended in 2015, fired up the crowd in-between media timeouts, and that was enough to get the current iteration of the Hawkeyes rolling. The Huskers didn't score for over four minutes, allowing Iowa to build a 17-13 lead.
The rest of the half remained a slugfest, but free throws and some late triples by Bennett Stirtz and Alvaro Folguieras gave the Hawkeyes a 33-28 halftime lead.
Second Half
Koch buried a three open the half, countering Nebraska's buzzer-beater at the end of the first, but that marked Iowa's only field goal in the first five minutes of the second. The Huskers took advantage by slicing the Hawkeye lead to two, 36-34.
Iowa fans were unhappy with the officiating throughout the early portion of the second half, which included two reviews from the officiating crew. Neither trip to the monitor yielded any additional foul, but it disrupted the flow of the basketball game. The Hawkeyes went cold from the field during this stretch, and the Nebraska faithful in attendance ramped up their noise.
Iowa and Nebraska have only been conference rivals for 15 years, but this game felt like an old-school rivalry that has been played for much longer than that. The contest resembled a boxing match, as each team attempted to drive to the cup, only to be walled up by an opposing defender.
With no other Hawkeye doing anything, Stirtz took matters into his own hands. He scored a tough layup to give Iowa the lead, and nailed a step-back triple to extend it to 50-45 with under four to play.
The Hawkeyes couldn't muster any offense for the rest of the game, but they didn't need to because they had Stirtz. Leading 50-47 with less than 90 seconds left, the senior superstar drew a moving screen to give possession back to Iowa. Stirtz then drew a foul while shooting a three on the next trip, and made all three foul shots to push the lead to six.
The Huskers countered with a triple of their own to make it a one-possession game, but Iowa made its free throws to seal the upset.
Up Next
The Hawkeyes return to action on Sunday, Feb. 22 for a road matchup against Wisconsin. The Badgers, 18-7 overall and 10-4 in Big Ten play, are one of the hottest teams in the country, boasting wins over Michigan and Illinois on their resume.
Tip off is set for 3 p.m. on FS1.