Nicholas Baer made a career-high five of Iowa’s 12 3-pointers and scored 17 points, helping the Hawkeyes pull away from Illinois for an 83-62 victory on Thursday in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament.
The Hawkeyes went 12 for 23 from beyond the arc and turned 15 Illini turnovers into 24 points.
The Fighting Illini (12-21) used a 9-0 run to trim the Hawkeyes’ lead to 30-29 with 4:38 left in the first half, but they gradually fell off the pace from there.
Iowa grabbed control by ripping off 23 of 28 points during the decisive stretch in the second half. Baer made three of the Hawkeyes’ six 3s during the run, and Luka Garza connected from long range to make it 71-47 with 7:48 left.
While Baer took aim from long range, Tyler Cook had the biggest highlight of the game when he reached back to slam home Jordan Bohannon’s perfectly placed pass on an inbounds play early in the second half.
Wieskamp scored 13 points for Iowa, and Cook finished with 12. Connor McCaffery had eight of the Hawkeyes’ 25 assists on 31 baskets.
The Illini shot 52 percent from the field and placed four players in double figures, but couldn’t keep up defensively. Trent Frazier and Tevian Jones each scored 11 points, and Ayo Dosunmu finished with 10.
