Print By LUKE MEREDITH
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - Freshman Joe Wieskamp matched a career high with 24 points and No. 23 Iowa routed Illinois 95-71 on Sunday for its fifth straight victory.
Isaiah Moss scored a season-high 21 points and Luka Garza added 20 for the Hawkeyes (16-3, 5-3 Big Ten), who shot 68 percent. They hit 12 of their first 14 3-point attempts and 15 overall to blow past the young but talented Fighting Illini (5-13, 1-6).
Iowa shot 68.4 percent in the first half to jump ahead 39-24. Moss, Jordan Bohannon and Wieskamp then buried consecutive 3s to open the second half, and Moss capped that blistering run with a contested 3 near the Iowa bench to make it a 68-45 game.
Wieskamp and Moss combined to go 10 for 10 on 3s during that stretch.
Iowa nearly broke the school record for 3-point percentage in a game, set 21 years ago at 75 percent against Northwestern, but walk-on Austin Ash missed a 30-footer in garbage time. The Hawkeyes finished 15 of 21 (71.4 percent) beyond the arc.
Ayo Dosunmu scored 15 points for Illinois. The Illini forced 15 turnovers, but they also let the Hawkeyes get tons of easy looks on 3s.
THE BIG PICTURE
Iowa: The Hawkeyes, who were languishing in the Big Ten cellar after starting 0-3, have a chance to make a major statement when sixth-ranked Michigan State visits on Thursday. Given how well Iowa has been playing lately, the Spartans should have cause for concern.
Illinois: The Fighting Illini scored 95 points in a rout of Minnesota on Wednesday, only to go seven minutes without scoring a single point in the first half of this one. Such is life for the young Illini, the only team in the Big Ten with underclassmen as their top three scorers.
POLL IMPLICATIONS
Beating Illinois won’t do much for Iowa’s ranking, but the Hawkeyes likely will move up a few spots because of losses by other teams at the back end of the poll.
UP NEXT
Iowa hosts the Spartans on Thursday.
Illinois plays Wisconsin - fresh off a season-changing win over No. 2 Michigan - in Champaign on Wednesday.
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