Bennett Stirtz was his usual self, scoring a team-high 27 points, but the story of the game was the raucous Carver-Hawkeye Arena crowd.
Iowa has been looking for a quality win to jumpstart the Ben McCollum era, and it got just that with a 74-61 victory over UCLA on Saturday in front of a raucous Carver-Hawkeye Arena crowd.
The Hawkeyes improve to 12-2 overall and 2-1 in league play with the win.
Here are three observations from the victory:
SPECTACULAR STIRTZ
The goal is to try and avoid repeating Bennett Stirtz's name in these articles each night, but his incredible play makes it too hard to do so. There were a lot of Hawkeyes that stepped up and made plays on this day, but Stirtz's performance was the primary factor in the triumph. The senior finished with a game-high 27 points, four rebounds, and five assists, including a near-flawless 8/10 from the field. He's not going to post those numbers every game, but Iowa is going to win a lot of basketball games if Stirtz continues to perform at such a high level.
Stirtz made numerous highlight-reel plays on this night, but it was his three-point shooting that wowed every white-cladded Hawkeye fan in the stands. Stirtz attempted six triples in this one and made four of them. In fact, the two misses marked his only missed field goals of the night. UCLA's defense did occasionally lapse and leave Stirtz open on the wing for a couple of those makes, but most of those converted trys were from Caitlin Clark logo range, including the exclamation point in the waning seconds.
Stirtz played with foul trouble for the majority of the second half (four fouls), making this performance even more remarkable. Despite his strong showing, the senior remained his usual humble self.
"I don't even know this first time I heard I only missed two shots, so I don't really keep track of my stats or anything like that," Stirtz said after the game. "I just try and win the game. I could care less if I scored zero points. Just want to see that. I guess it's cool."
FOLGUIERAS PROVIDES THE SPARK
Robert Morris transfer Alvaro Folguieras has had his fair share of struggles this season, but he seems to be adjusting well to the Power Five level. He was fantastic in the loss to Iowa State on Dec. 11, but his play in the early minutes of this game really helped the Hawkeyes build such a large first half lead.
Folguieras isn't technically listed as a starter, but he might as well be because he comes in as soon as the first whistle blows. Both teams were off to a slow start at that point, but Folguieras immediately provided the jolt Iowa needed. He blocked what looked to be an open layup and then followed that up with a pair of triples to ignite both his team and the Hawkeye faithful.
UCLA did its best to slow Folguieras down in the paint, but the junior still tallied 13 points, five rebounds, and two assists.
"The team gave me those open looks. My job is making them and that's why they brought me here [to Iowa]," Folguieras said
CROWDS ARE RETURNING TO CARVER
A year ago today, a game like this would have brought little to no fans in the building. Now, as McCollum slowly starts to turn this program around, Hawkeye fans are starting to buy into their team. The announced attendance today was 12,657, which isn't a sellout, but it's a massive difference compared to last season.
This crowd was far from laid back. Iowa fans were engaged from the start and really began to make their presence known as the Bruins attempted their second half rally. The first thing McCollum did in his postgame presser was to praise the crowd's efforts, which he said made a pivotal difference in the outcome.
"The crowd willed us to victory, and that's why it's important to have a crowd," McCollum said. "In these kind of games, it gets you 10 points. Just the atmosphere, the energy, people standing, people cheering. They're a fun group to watch."
UP NEXT: Iowa returns to action on Tuesday, Jan. 6 for a road test at rival Minnesota. The Golden Gophers are 9-5 overall and 2-1 in Big Ten play after defeating Northwestern earlier today. Tip-off from Williams Arena is set for 7 p.m. on Big Ten Network.