The Iowa men’s basketball team cruised to victory in their final non-conference game of the season, defeating Coppin State 80-50 this afternoon in Iowa City. Eleven Hawkeye buckets were dunks. Aaron White scored 20 points, including six dunks.
“It’s just a good, overall team win, though,” White says. “A lot of guys found me in transition and you’ve got to give them the assists on why I scored so well.”
White, a six-foot-eight-inch sophomore, shot 87 percent and pulled down three rebounds.
“A lot of my points come off just, you know, trying to out-work the guy across from me, getting to spots where my guards can find me on the baseline or in transition and, you know, trying to fight on the boards,” White says. “So that’s my role on this team. That’s what I’ve settled into, you know, after last year, you know, not really knowing my role in the non-conference last year and I kind of got into it as Big Ten play started and, you know, I’m really embracing it.”
Iowa coach Fran McCaffery says his team was able to overcome some poor outside shooting and 20 turnovers.
“Every game is different. If you would have told me we’d go 0-17 from three (point range) and we’d have 20 turn-overs, I would have told you this would have been about a two or three point game,” McCaffery says. “So I’m proud of our break, I’m proud of our unselfishness, and I’m proud of our ability to lock in defensively and rebound the way we did.”
Iowa pulled down 54 rebounds, collecting 38 Coppin State misses.
“They’re a team that really relies on second-shot put-backs. If they want to press, it gets them into their press,” he says. “They really rely on that for confidence so that was the game plan for them and we took that away.”
The Hawks have won six straight. Their record is now 11-2. They face Indiana on December 31st to open Big Ten Conference play. In other men’s basketball action this afternoon, Drake beat Eastern Illinois 74-56. UNI plays Saint Mary’s Sunday afternoon in Cedar Falls.