National Basketball Association
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Iowa 106, Northern Illinois 53
When: 2:00 PM ET, Sunday, December 13, 2020
Where: Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Iowa City, Iowa
Officials: # D.J. Carstensen, # Donnie Eppley, # Steve Honacki
Attendance: 546

Luka Garza had 23 points and Joe Wieskamp scored 20 as undefeated No. 3 Iowa took control early and rolled to a 106-53 home win over Northern Illinois on Sunday in Iowa City.

Patrick McCaffery scored 14 points and Keegan Murray added 10 for the Hawkeyes (6-0), who rank among the national leaders averaging 100.5 points per game following their highest-scoring game of the season. Garza, averaging 29.2 points who needed to play just 20 minutes Sunday, scored 14 first-half points and finished the game having made 8 of 10 attempts from the field to go along with eight rebounds. Wieskamp, who played 19 minutes, made 9 of 13 attempts from the field as the Hawkeyes shot 56.2 percent for the afternoon.

Adong Makuoi had 14 points to lead NIU (0-5), which was held to 34.3 percent shooting, including making just 2 of 15 attempts from 3-point range, while falling to 0-9 all-time against Iowa.

Northern Illinois led 10-8, as the Hawkeyes missed eight of the first 10 shot attempts and Garza went scoreless until just over 15 minutes left in the half. From that point, though, Garza scored Iowa's next eight points. Iowa used a 15-0 run that opened a 23-10 lead -- highlighting a stretch of scoring 25 of the game's 27 points during one first-half spurt.

Iowa, which led 51-27 at the break, shot 55.9 percent and made 7 of 16 attempts from 3-point range during the first half to make things academic at that point.

NIU, playing without key contributor Tyler Cochran (14 ppg) due to apparent COVID-19 contract tracing issues, missed all six of its 3-point attempts in the first half. The Huskies' Trendon Hankerson scored 18 points in each of his team's previous two games but was held to eight on Sunday.

Garza knocked down a 3-pointer to open the second half, as the Hawkeyes stormed out of the gate to score the first eight points out of halftime.

--Field Level Media

Top Game Performances
 
Northern Illinois   Iowa
Adong Makuoi 14 Scoring Luka Garza 23
Kaleb Thornton 3 Assists Connor McCaffery 7
Trendon Hankerson 7 Rebounds Luka Garza 8
Darius Beane 1 Free Throws Made Luka Garza 5
Darius Beane 1 Steals Jordan Bohannon 2
Anthony Crump 1 Blocks Keegan Murray 3
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
Northern Illinois 53 34.3 2-15 3-9 10 37 1 5 18
Iowa 106 56.2 12-30 12-18 29 44 7 12 8