Garza reaches milestone, Iowa tops Spartans
IOWA CITY, IOWA » Luka Garza scored 27 points to reach another milestone and No. 8 Iowa beat Michigan State 84-78 on Tuesday night.
Garza, who came into the game as the nation’s leading scorer at 26.4 points per game, became the second 2,000-point scorer in program history. Garza, who has 2,009 points, is 107 points behind all-time leading scorer Roy Marble.
The Hawkeyes (13-4, 7-3 Big Ten) led 79-70 before the Spartans (8-7, 2-7) went on an 8-1 run. Michigan State had a chance to tie the game after forcing a shotclock violation, but Joshua Langford missed a jumper with 24 seconds left.
Iowa’s Jordan Bohannon closed the game with four consecutive free throws.
It was the fourth consecu
tive loss for the Spartans. Iowa snapped a five-game losing streak to Michigan State, which came in having won 19 of the last 22 in the series.
The Spartans, who were just 5 of 24 in 3-point shooting in Sunday’s 79-62 loss to Ohio State, opened up an early 26-15 lead by making their first six 3-pointers. But the Hawkeyes rallied for a 4843 halftime lead behind Garza, who had 15 first-half points, and Jack Nunge, who had 11.
Nunge finished with 12 points. Joe Toussaint had 10. The Hawkeyes had 39 bench points.
Aaron Henry led Michigan State with 24 points. Langford had 15 points. Joey Hauser had 10.
Fredrick returns
Iowa guard CJ Fredrick, who missed Friday’s game at Illinois because of a lower leg injury, started and played 12 minutes, scoring two points. Fredrick has started all 16 games he has played in this season.
Busy schedules
Michigan State, which went 20 days without a game because of COVID-19 issues within the program, was playing its third game in six days, all on the road. This was the first game in a threegame, six-day stretch for Iowa.