Iowa Beats Northwestern, 69-52
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Senior Aaron White scored 25 points and Iowa beat Northwestern, 69-52, on Saturday for its first six-game Big Ten winning streak in 28 years.
White also passed Acie Earl for the second-most points in school history to lead the Hawkeyes (21-10, 12-6 Big Ten).
Iowa never trailed in its final home game of the year. The Hawkeyes turned a six-point halftime lead into a 52-35 advantage midway through the second half and finished their conference slate with identical 6-3 home and road records.
Tre Demps had 15 points for Northwestern (15-16, 6-12), which lost for just the second time in seven games.
Iowa's last loss came at Northwestern on Feb. 15, an overtime defeat that threatened to doom its NCAA tournament chances.
The surging Hawkeyes weren't about to get swept by the Wildcats.
White buried two 3s and threw down a vicious alley-oop dunk in the first few minutes and Iowa was on its way. The Hawkeyes let Northwestern get within a possession on a few occasions, but they pushed their lead back up to 37-27 on a White dunk early in the second half.
White's last alley-oop dunk came with just under five minutes left. He stopped, turned to the crowd with a smile and briefly indulged in one of the final standing ovations of his storied career.
White now has 1,793 points.
The Wildcats would have made a game of it had they been able to knock down some more shots. But Northwestern finished with just 16 baskets.
Jarrod Uthoff had 16 points and Adam Woodbury scored 13 for Iowa.
TIP-INS
Iowa: The Hawkeyes senior class won 59 games at home, the most in school history. Iowa's 1998, 2008 and 2009 seniors won 54 games in Carver-Hawkeye Arena...coach Fran McCaffery drew a technical foul in the second half.
Northwestern: The day got off to a bumpy start when Wildcats center Alex Olah knocked over a shot clock. Olah threw down a dunk in warmups about 45 minutes before tip, sending the clock careening into the base of the hoop. The rest of the Wildcats went to the other end of the floor to finish pregame activities while Iowa officials scrambled to fix it. It only took a few minutes before the clock was back in its original spot above the backboard.
UP NEXT
The Big Ten tournament for both teams.
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