Keegan Murray scored 18 of his 29 points in the first half as Iowa built momentum before heading back to Big Ten Conference competition, drilling Western Illinois 92-71 on Wednesday night at Iowa City.
Murray made 13 of 20 shots from the field and also posted game highs with 10 rebounds, three steals and three blocked shots.
Payton Sandfort and Jordan Bohannon provided 13 points apiece for Iowa (10-3) in its nonconference finale. Patrick McCaffrey had 11 points.
It was the third straight win for the Hawkeyes immediately following a three-game losing skid. Murray has scored 20 or more points in each of the past three games.
The Hawkeyes have scored at least 85 points nine times this season.
Trenton Massner’s 20 points and Colton Sandage’s 15 points paced Western Illinois (10-4), which dropped to 4-4 in road games. Will Carius and Luka Barisic each contributed 12 points.
Iowa’s reserves outscored Western Illinois backups by a combined 32-8. The Hawkeyes also benefitted from 18-for-20 shooting on free throws, though they committed 12 turnovers.
The Leathernecks were hindered by 5-for-30 shooting from 3-point range, with Massner missing all four of his attempts from long range. The visitors made all six of their free-throw attempts.
Western Illinois, which trailed by as many as 21 points, rallied within 80-67 with six minutes to go. From there, the Hawkeyes scored the next eight points, with four of those coming from Kris Murray.
Iowa led 53-33 at halftime, largely because of 18 points from Murray, 10 points off the bench from Sandfort and 58.3-percent shooting from the field for the team.
The Hawkeyes produced their first double-digit lead of the night at 31-21 on Sandfort’s 3-pointer. That was part of his personal eight-point burst in a span of less than two minutes.
The Hawkeyes have won all 11 meetings with Western Illinois. Iowa won a matchup last December by 41 points.
–Field Level Media