tiger hawkThe Iowa Hawkeyes have their first five-game winning streak in the Big Ten race since 1997. The Hawkeyes walked into Bloomington and delivered a 77-63 beating to an Indiana team desperate to boost its NCAA hopes.

Iowa coach Fran McCaffery says it began with defense. “We outrebounded them, we gave them very little in transition, I thought we did a really good job of guarding our man and not fouling excessively,” McCaffery says . Iowa dominated the paint and finished 23 of 28 from the charity stripe.

McCaffery says the Hawks were consistent at both ends and never let the Hoosiers make a big run. “I’ve been here a number of times, going back to my days at Notre Dame, and this is a very difficult crowd. and I thought our guys composure essentially took the crowd out of the game tonight,” McCaffery says.

Aaron White led Iowa with 21 points. The Hawkeyes are 11-6 in the Big Ten and with a victory over Northwestern on Saturday will win 12 Big Ten games for only the second time since 1989.