Hawkeye Pressure too Much for Mastodons

Saturday, November 26

Iowa City, Iowa

1:00 p.m.

Purdue Fort Wayne

2-2

Iowa

4-2

IPFW

Iowa

11/26/2011 4:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

IOWA CITY, Iowa - The Iowa Hawkeyes forced 23 IPFW turnovers, converting them into 33 points, holding off a feisty Mastodon squad late in the game to come away with an 82-72 victory at Carver Hawkeye Arena on Saturday afternoon.

Frank Gaines scored a game-high 25 points for IPFW, who fell to 2-2. Trey McCorkle and Mario Hines each scored a dozen points, Jason Smeathers scored nine, while Joe Edwards chipped in seven.

McCorkle pulled down a game-high eight rebounds, as the Mastodons out-rebounded Iowa 30-to-26. Hines grabbed six boards, while Gaines had five. John Peckinpaugh dished out a team-best three assists, while Gaines had two steals.

The teams played even out of the gate, with the score tied at three through the first two minutes of the game before the hosts rattled off a 12-3 run to lead by nine three minutes later, taking a lead that they would not give up for the remainder of the game.

The Mastodons climbed back to within four in the first half after a lay-up by Joe Edwards with 8:39 to play, but nine straight points by Iowa pushed the lead back to double-digits, as the hosts went into the locker room with a ten-point, 39-29 advantage.

After a jumper by Iowa's Bryce Cartwright gave Iowa 12-point lead out of the locker room, the Mastodons fought back using a 6-0 run on a Peckinpaugh free throw, a Gaines three-point basket, and a McCorkle 15-foot jumper to close to within six, and a Gaines jumper 40 seconds later closed the gap to five at 42-37 with 16:56 to play.

Iowa once again used a run, this one 10-3 to push the lead back to double digits in the yo-yo battle with the margin.

Trailing by nine with 10:43 left, IPFW mounted its biggest threat, using a Hines dunk, and back-to-back jumpers from Gaines and Hines to close to within three two and a half minutes later.

The margin pushed back and forth, and was at four with 2:15 to play; however, the constant uphill battle of the second half proved too much, as Iowa iced the game by making 5-of-7 free throws in the final minute and a half of the game, holding on for the 82-72 victory.

The Mastodons made 52.3 percent of its shots (23-of-44), led by Gaines who was 10-of-14 from the field, and 3-of-4 from long range. McCorkle led the charges at the charity stripe by going 8-for-8, as the team made 19-of-26 shots (73.1 percent).

The team returns home for a December 1 meeting with the Kangaroos of UMKC in a 7:30 p.m. tip-off at the Memorial Coliseum.

~Dons~