Iowa earns key road victory at Ohio State

TOP 25 MEN NO. 9 IOWA 73, NO. 4 OHIO ST. 57

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Luka Garza rushed through a national TV interview after No. 9 Iowa routed No. 4 Ohio State on Sunday because he couldn’t wait to start celebrating with teammates in the locker room.

“They waited on me, and we had a little celebration,” Garza said after scoring 24 points and pulling down 10 rebounds in Iowa’s 73-57 win over the Buckeyes. “It’s a huge win for our group, to be able to beat a team like that on their home floor. It’s impressive for us, and it’s huge going forward, especially with seeding in the Big Ten tournament and the NCAA Tournament.”

Joe Weiskamp added 19 points — including 5-for-9 shooting from three-point range — for the Hawkeyes (187, 12-6 Big Ten), who have won five of six with two games remaining in their regular season.

Iowa bounced back from a 79-57 loss to No. 3 Michigan on Thursday.

“We’re an experienced group, we’re a resilient group,” Garza said. “And we know, we’ve had confidence all year that we can hang with the best of the best, and we know we can beat them. Unfortunately, we’ve had a couple performances that didn’t reflect how we good we are against those teams.”

E.J. Liddell had 15 points and Justice Sueing scored 10 for the Buckeyes (18-7, 12-7). Recently projected as a No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed, they’ve lost three games in eight days.

Duane Washington Jr.’s three-pointer cut the Iowa lead to seven points with 3:29 left in the first half, but a 10-3 Iowa run made it 42-28 at the break. Garza had 15 points in the first half, and Weiskamp had 13 on 3-of-4 three-point shooting.

The Buckeyes mounted a 14-2 run to open the second half and got back within two with 16:49 left. But a three-pointer from Weiskamp and a couple of baskets in the paint by Garza got the Hawkeyes out of the danger zone and Ohio State couldn’t chip away.

“They clearly outplayed us, outperformed us, outcoached us,” Ohio State Coach Chris Holtmann said. “We’ve got to get back to work.”

BUTLER 73, NO. 8 VILLANOVA 61

INDIANAPOLIS — Chuck Harris scored 20 points and Jair Bolden added 15 on Sunday to lead Butler to a victory over No. 8 Villanova, which became the sixth top-15 team to lose this weekend.

The Bulldogs (9-13, 8-11 Big East) have won two in a row since snapping a three-game losing streak and have beaten the Wildcats in four of the last five meetings in Indianapolis.

Jeremiah Robinson-Earl finished with 16 points and 16 rebounds to lead Villanova (15-4, 10-3), which had won 13 of its previous 15 and was favored by 101/2 points. Collin Gillespie had 14 points for the Wildcats.

NO. 12 HOUSTON 98, SOUTH FLORIDA 52

HOUSTON — Quentin Grimes scored 22 points, all in the first half, to lead No. 12 Houston to a victory over South Florida.

Grimes scored 16 consecutive points at one point as the Cougars (20-3, 13-3 American Athletic) put the game away with a huge first-half run. The junior guard, who scored 21 of his 33 points in the first half against Western Kentucky on Thursday, finished 8 of 16 from the floor and hit 6 of 12 three-pointers.

DeJon Jarreau added 16 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists, and Justin Gorham and Fabian White Jr. had 10 points apiece for Houston, which won its third in a row and reached 20 wins for the sixth consecutive season.

The Cougars shot 60% and made 15 of 33 three-pointers. Houston forced the Bulls (8-10, 4-8) into 15 turnovers and converted those into 22 points.