Hawks Bury Badgers Thanks to Garza

This Iowa Hawkeye men's basketball team is making its way through another late season rough patch. During that time, center Luka Garza saw his output drop a bit too. Some even wondered if he was worthy of Big Ten and National Player of the Year honors anymore. Garza put that talk to rest Thursday night in Madison.

Garza scored a game high 30 points as #11 Iowa topped #21 Wisconsin 77-62. It was a true player of the year performance as Garza made 11 of 19 shots from the field including 4 of 6 from three point range, according to the Gazette. It was Garza's seventh 30 point game of the year, and came after he scored just 8 points against Michigan State. In fact, the past four games, Garza had missed more shots than he made.

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For the third straight game, Iowa played great defense. The Badgers shot just 30% from the field and made only 4 of their first 30 shot attempts, according to the Gazette. Iowa shot over 50% for the night, including 12 of 19 from three point range.

Joe Wieskamp continued his strong play with 17 points. He made 5 of 6 three pointers, and has hit an amazing 15 of 20 from three over the past three games. Freshman Keegan Murray had a career high 12 rebounds for Iowa, who also saw guard C.J. Fredrick return to the lineup. After missing the Michigan State game, Fredrick played 31 minutes and had zero turnovers.

Iowa is 16-6 overall, 10-5 in Big Ten play, good enough for fourth place alone in the standings. They host Penn State at Carver Hawkeye Arena Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m.