IOWA CITY, Iowa — Indiana visited Luka Garza and the No. 4 Iowa Hawkeyes for a chance to make a statement win over a top-5 team and they did with a 81-69 victory.

This is Archie Miller’s first win against a top-5 team as Indiana’s head coach and first win against a top 10 team in nearly two years. This is the first time Indiana has defeated a top-5 team since they beat UNC in 2016 with Coach Tom Crean.

Despite making the trip out to Iowa City, Trey Galloway did not end up dressing up for the contest due to a sore back. Joey Brunk and Parker Stewart both made the trip as well to watch their team face the Hawkeyes.

Indiana University Athletics

Both Indiana and Iowa came out swinging with high-powered offense behind Trayce Jackson-Davis and Iowa’s Luka Garza and Joe Wieskamp. Iowa had more-or-less a two man team behind Garza and Wieskamp, who scored 30 of their 37 first-half points.

Indiana got into early foul trouble in the first half with Trayce Jackson-Davis and Race Thompson getting two fouls apiece in just 10 minutes of play. Despite these difficulties, they maintained Iowa’s fast-paced attack and were only down by 6 at the half.

The second half saw the Hawkeyes starting to pull away near the midway point, but the Hoosiers dialed in and made critical buckets on the other end of the court behind Armaan Franklin and Trayce Jackson-Davis.

Iowa, on the other hand, looked flat-footed and lost for much of the second half as they were being forced into shot clock violations and awkward shots. Garza scored 13 in the second half to finish the game with 28 while Wieskamp only added 1 to his 15 he scored in the first half. Also, Bohannon who created a nightmare for the Hoosiers last time scored 0 points while shooting 0-9 over the game.

Indiana found a way to spread the ball effectively with four players scoring double-digits apiece (Durham, Phinisee, Trayce Jackson-Davis and Franklin). Iowa only had Garza and Wieskamp break double digits. However, Iowa outrebounded the Hoosiers 46-32.

IndianaHQ Shop - Indiana Tshirts, IU Hoosiers Apparel

Jordan Geronimo saw the most action he has all season and played a crucial role in the victory for the Hoosiers. He had a season-high 7 points on a perfect 3-3 FGs. What was most impressive was the way he scored, laying down the hammer and dunking over the Hawkeyes in a way reminiscent of Victor Oladipo.

Indiana held Garza to 10-22 on shooting despite his 28 points. This is Garza’s worst shooting percentage since Northwestern on December 29.

Iowa was ranked second in the Big Ten in 3-point shooting shooting an impressive 39.5%. However they only made 5 of 23 from behind the arc for the game.

Even though Indiana won, Archie Miller and fans will note plenty of room to improve with making barely over 50% of their free throws. Indiana left only made 21 of 35 (60%) from the charity stripe including Trayce Jackson-Davis only making 5-10, Geronimo making 1-3, and Phinisee making 2-4.

The last time the Hoosiers have defeated Iowa at Carver was four years ago when they won 84-82 during Archie Miller’s first season as coach. This is the first time Archie Miller has a top-10 win since March 2, 2019 at home against No. 6 Michigan State.

Up Next: Indiana will head home to face Rutgers on January 24th at Noon on BTN.

Cover Photo: Indiana University Athletics