Bennett Stirtz again saved the day with a career-high 36 points, and Cooper Koch played a key role defending Nick Martinelli.
It was far from pretty, but Iowa basketball continues to find ways to win ugly games at home. The Hawkeyes defeated the visiting Northwestern Wildcats, 76-70, at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Super Bowl Sunday.
Iowa (18-5, 8-4) has now won six straight games, the first time it has done so since the 2015-16 season.
Here are three observations from the win:
Another career day for Stirtz
One week after setting a new career-high with 32 points at Oregon, Bennett Stirtz decided to one-up himself on Sunday. The senior was the difference in this game, posting a new career-best 36 points against Northwestern.
"If they tried to double team, I tried to help him out and just throw it right back to him. I let him do his thing," senior guard Tavion Banks said.
And Iowa certainly needed every single one of those points. There were many junctures where the Hawkeyes needed a bucket after a dry-spell, but Stirtz's biggest moment may have come at the 8:19 mark of the second half.
Iowa led by as many as 14 points in the period, but some sloppy play allowed the Wildcats to trim the deficit down to just three with plenty of time remaining. The mood in Carver-Hawkeye Arena was tense, but Stirtz was their to uplift everybody's spirits.
Leading 56-53, Alvaro Folguieras nearly dribbled the ball out of bounds, but kept control and executed a perfect swing pass to Tate Sage, who circled it around the horn to an open Stirtz for three and a six-point Hawkeye lead.
Northwestern still kept it close for the rest of the contest, but Iowa held a firm grasp on the game after this bucket.
Stirtz wasn't aware he had surpassed his career-high until after the Oregon game, but it appears like he realized it on Sunday. The reason? His father, Roger, made sure to point out that he still had the family record of 34 points at Emporia State.
That record now sits in Bennett's hands, and he plans to return the favor to his dad.
"I'll let him know [that I broke it] after this press conference. I'll give him some crap," Stirtz said.
Koch shuts down Martinelli
Northwestern has been carried by senior forward and Nick Martinelli all season, but he was shut down for the second straight game. Illinois held the Big Ten's leading scorer to four points on Wednesday, and though he collected 21 points against the Hawkeyes, Martinelli needed 19 field goal attempts to do it.
The senior made just 6 of those tries from the floor, and that was because of Cooper Koch. Koch told the media on Friday that he expected the assignment of guarding Martinelli, and he didn't disappoint.
While McCollum admitted his defense "didn't play very well" on Sunday, he did praise Koch's efforts. Defending one of the best scorers in the country without fouling is no easy task, but Koch finished with just two fouls.
"Cooper was the best on him. He was excellent. He did a good job of walling up, made him [Martinelli] finish over the top, didn't allow him to make anyone else better," McCollum said.
Sluggish start again at home
Is their a mysterious breeze in Carver-Hawkeye Arena that we all don't know about? Every time the Hawkeyes play in front of their home fans - usually helpful for a team - their offense struggles to show up until the end of the first half.
That was the case again on Sunday. Iowa opened this one with a respectable 10-6 lead, but it never found a groove until Northwestern's Jayden Reid was charged with a technical foul near the end of the first half.
In between was a field goal drought that Ben McCollum was not happy with. The Hawkeyes went nearly seven minutes without a field goal, allowing the Wildcats to jump out to a surprising five-point lead at the 8:00 mark.
McCollum credited Northwestern's coverages and trapping schemes as one of the reasons for the drought, but Iowa also missed plenty of open looks from three - going 0/5 from distance in the half. Fouls
"I credit them [Northwestern] just keeping us on our heels. And that was a big reason why we couldn't score," McCollum said.
"I think most of it was on us. We didn't get to a lot of screens. Sometimes the ball was stuck, and we definitely have to work on that," Stirtz said. "But yeah, credit to Northwestern for putting us in tough positions."
The 11/25 (44%) clip from the floor was reasonable, but it's not something the Hawkeyes are going to celebrate. With marquee home games against Purdue and Nebraska looming, Iowa can't afford to start slow at home if it wants to secure the big wins its fanbase has longed for.
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