Iowa Survives Rutgers Scare With Gritty Home Win

On a chilly Tuesday night in Iowa City, the Iowa Hawkeyes men’s basketball team delivered a performance that was anything but smooth, yet did just enough to secure a hard-fought 68-62 victory over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. It wasn’t pretty—far from it, actually—but sometimes, grit and resilience are all that matter in the Big Ten Conference, where every win is a battle and nothing comes easy.

Let’s set the scene: Iowa, coming off a convincing 74-57 win at Indiana, entered the contest with a 13-5 overall record and a 3-4 mark in conference play. Rutgers, meanwhile, limped into Iowa City at 9-9 (2-5 Big Ten), still searching for their first true road win of the season and carrying a NET ranking of 158. The Scarlet Knights had recently suffered a tough 96-87 loss at Wisconsin, but they weren’t about to roll over for the Hawkeyes.

Tip-off was pushed back to 7:37 p.m. CT, with fans tuning in on the Big Ten Network and streaming via FUBO. The energy inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena was palpable, and the crowd was ready for a showdown that, on paper, Iowa was expected to win handily. But as head coach Ben McCollum would later admit, this one was anything but a walk in the park.

The opening minutes saw Rutgers jump out to an early 5-0 lead, hustling for every rebound and forcing Iowa into uncomfortable spots. The Hawkeyes responded with a burst of their own, sparked by Tavion Banks’ aggressive drives and Kael Combs’ smooth floater, pulling ahead 7-5 after five minutes. By the midway mark of the first half, Iowa held a narrow 13-12 advantage, thanks in part to Combs’ early seven points.

But the Scarlet Knights were relentless, embarking on a 6-0 run that threatened to tilt the game in their favor. That’s when Iowa’s offense finally found its groove. Tate Sage, the freshman guard who would prove to be a difference-maker all night, drilled a pair of corner threes. Bennett Stirtz, Iowa’s senior point guard and emotional leader, muscled in a tough bucket plus the foul, and Isaia Howard snuck in for a crafty layup. Cooper Koch capped the surge with a three-pointer, fueling an 18-6 Hawkeye run that gave Iowa a 31-24 halftime lead.

“That’s important to be able to win consistently. You have to win games when it’s just not clicking,” McCollum said after the game. “I did think that we did actually come ready. I thought our effort was actually pretty good. I thought our concentration was really poor.”

The first half was far from flawless. Iowa and Rutgers combined for 19 turnovers—Rutgers with 12, Iowa with seven—signaling a sloppy, stop-and-start affair. Stirtz led the Hawkeyes at the break with seven points on 3-of-9 shooting, while Banks matched that total on 3-of-5 from the field. Sage’s six points, all from beyond the arc, hinted at the bigger impact he’d have down the stretch.

After halftime, the script flipped. Rutgers came out of the locker room on fire, rattling off a 9-0 run in just three minutes to snatch a 33-31 lead and stun the home crowd. Iowa looked rattled, and McCollum’s frustration was visible on the sidelines. The Hawkeyes managed just eight points in the first ten minutes of the second half, with Sage’s backdoor layup, a Banks three, and a Stirtz driving dunk providing the only offense.

But just when it seemed like Rutgers might pull away, Iowa regrouped. Sage once again ignited the Hawkeyes with two more clutch triples—one at the start and one at the end of a critical 15-7 run that restored Iowa’s lead to 53-49. Sage finished with 17 points in 30 minutes, hitting 4-of-6 from deep and providing the spark Iowa so desperately needed. “I feel [I’m] me becoming just dependable,” Sage said. “I feel like I go out there and just play my role and do my job very well, that when they put me on the floor. They know I’m gonna do my job.”

From there, it was the Bennett Stirtz show. Despite missing all six of his three-point attempts, Stirtz willed his team to victory with a relentless attack in the final minutes. He scored nine of his game-high 20 points in the last 5:30, including a traditional three-point play with 1:42 remaining that gave Iowa a 64-58 cushion. “I thought his concentration was just okay,” McCollum said of Stirtz. “I thought his effort was great. I thought he was ready to go. Concentration and kind of that killer instinct, until that last ten minutes wasn’t there. But again, he turned it on the last ten minutes and then he was great. I thought he was great defensively late as well. I thought he was excellent. He did enough to win the game, which is what guys need to do at this level.”

Rutgers, to their credit, refused to go quietly. They trimmed the deficit to 64-62 with just 22.4 seconds left, capitalizing on a Stirtz charging foul and a pair of free throws. But Iowa’s young guns held their nerve. Sage calmly sank two free throws with 18 seconds left to push the lead to four, and Isaia Howard iced the game with two more from the charity stripe with five ticks remaining. The Hawkeyes, despite 12 turnovers, 19 personal fouls, and stretches of poor concentration, had done just enough to escape with the win.

“Total confidence,” Sage said when asked about his mindset before those crucial free throws. “I feel like I’ve been a pretty good shooter from the free throw line in my career, even though I started off pretty slow this year. But nothing but confidence going up to the line.”

The win improved Iowa to 14-5 overall and 4-4 in Big Ten play, while Rutgers dropped to 9-10 and 2-6 in the league. The Scarlet Knights’ road woes continued, falling to 0-5 in true road games. For Iowa, it marked their second-straight victory and reinforced the team’s resilience under Ben McCollum, who’s now 14-5 in his first season at the helm.

Looking ahead, the Hawkeyes will enjoy a rare week of rest before welcoming USC to Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Wednesday, January 28. The Trojans, as of January 20, sport a 14-4 record but have lost three of their last five games and will face Northwestern and Wisconsin before their trip to Iowa City. McCollum, asked about his plans for the break, kept it light: “Tomorrow I’m going to sleep, today I’m going to sleep and play with my dogs. Might go for a walk with my wife if it warms up. But other than that, team wise we’re going to practice, not tomorrow. But we’re going to practice because we need to get better.”

So, while the Hawkeyes’ latest win may not have been a masterpiece, it was a testament to their ability to grind out results when the going gets tough. With the Big Ten race heating up and a challenging stretch ahead, Iowa’s mixture of veteran leadership and youthful spark could be just what they need to stay in the hunt.