Iowa survives test from NC Central

For nearly 30 minutes, North Carolina Central gave Iowa all they could handle.

The Eagles scrapped and clawed their way back from a couple of deficits to keep the fans in their seats at Carver a little longer than expected. In the end the Hawkeyes pulled out the 86-69 win on the back of Keegan Murray who had 27 points and 21 rebounds, as well as some much-needed bench production.

Filip Rebraca got two early fouls, which pushed Murray into a bigger rebounding role than expected.

“Filip had two fouls in the first half, so that kind of changed things for our team. I tried to be aggressive on the offense boards and just replace him and get rebounds,” said Murray.

NC Central had no problem getting to the hoop early in the first half, which allowed them to stay in it with a lot of easy baskets. Despite the early struggles, the Hawkeyes were able to build a 38-23 lead with just under seven minutes left in the first half, but the Eagles fought back.

A 21-11 run cut the Hawkeyes lead to 49-44 at the half, while 30 of NC Central’s points came in the paint. Keegan Murray mentioned that the team got a little “lackadaisical” on defense covering ball screens in the first half and that helped them get open shots.

“It’s a team that runs a million plays very well. That guys a really good coach and they’ve got five drivers. We made a few mistakes on our ball screen defense,” said Coach Fran McCaffery on the first half defensive struggles.

The Eagles held tough with the Hawkeyes for the beginning of the second half, but things changed when Connor McCaffery, Filip Rebraca, Tony Perkins, Ahron Uhlis and Keegan Murray came together on the court with 13:05 remaining.

A Keegan Murray transition pass led to a Tony Perkins layup that extended the lead to five, forcing an NCCU timeout. Until the last 49.9 of the game that group stayed on the floor and ultimately pushed the Hawkeyes to victory.

The group outscored the Eagles 29-11, as their defensive effort turned the game in favor of Iowa.

“They seemed to not tire. Typically, when you’re pressing and you’re guarding man to man off the dribble and everybody is in there rebounding, it wears you down. But they didn’t seem to get tired and seemed to be connected,” said Fran on why he kept that particular group out there for most of the second half. “I stuck with that group that I thought was really being productive.”

“We were all athletic, so it was move and just switching everything. Making sure that we shut down the inside and outside game for their guards,” said Tony Perkins on shutting down the NCCU attack late in the game.

Filip Rebraca was a key contributor in that second half lineup, despite the early foul trouble. He contributed eight points and six rebounds, including three offensive boards in the second half.

Keegan Murray was very impressive racking up a double double with 20+ points and rebounds, but the story of the game came from the bench production. Particularly in the form of Tony Perkins and Ahron Uhlis. The two combined for 25 points, 5 assists and 4 steals behind Keegan to spark the second half run.

“Every time they were dribbling on me, I kept hitting the ball and they were getting frustrated. They were trying to run plays and we were just hitting the ball, tipping the ball and getting them out of their sets,” said Perkins.

In the end, this game gave the Hawkeyes a chance to face some adversity and play under pressure in an early game before the schedule really starts to ramp up with games vs Utah State, Virginia and Iowa State.

“You’re going to see adversity pretty much every game…The thing that was important about this game. We got up 15, they came back. We got up again, they came back. They kept coming and I think that’s how you grow up,” said Coach McCaffery.

Jordan Bohannon hit an early 3pt basket to tie Jon Diebler for the Big Ten career 3pt record, but struggled to hit #375, going 1/9 for the game from long distance, as he will have to wait one more game to break the record.

The Hawkeyes will be back in on Thursday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, as they take on an Alabama State team that kept things close for 40 minutes with Iowa State tonight.