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IOWA CITY, Iowa \u2014 The Rutgers basketball program appears to be slowly turning a corner. <\/p>\n
Freshman Ron Harper Jr. scored a season-high 27 points and the Scarlet Knights rolled past Iowa 86-72 on Saturday in the Hawkeyes\u2019 home finale.<\/p>\n
Issa Thiam had 13 points for the Scarlet Knights (14-14, 7-11), who won their first road game over a ranked opponent as a Big Ten team. It was also the Scarlet Knights\u2019 first victory over a Top 25 team away from home since defeating then-No. 13 Pittsburgh 77-64 in 2008.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got it rolling a little bit,\u201d Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to win on the road, and it\u2019s the best league in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iowa played without coach Fran McCaffery, who was suspended by the school for two games for yelling at an official in a hallway heading to the locker room following Tuesday\u2019s loss at Ohio State.<\/p>\n
It was Iowa\u2019s third loss in four games \u2014 and the Hawkeyes (21-8, 10-8) needed some late heroics to top Indiana in their only win in that stretch.<\/p>\n
The scariest thing for the Hawkeyes was how lopsided it was. Iowa shot just 35.7 percent from the floor and turned it over 13 times.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt didn\u2019t seem like we able to get into any sort of offensive rhythm,\u201d acting Iowa coach Andrew Francis said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t shot the ball collectively as well as we know we\u2019re capable of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rutgers jumped all over the Hawkeyes in the first half, hitting seven 3s \u2014 including 3 straight from Thiam from the same corner \u2014 to jump ahead 39-30. The Scarlet Knights then went on an 8-2 run straight out of the locker room to make it 47-32.<\/p>\n
Iowa, the national leader in free throws made entering play, got into the bonus with 13:21 left. But the Scarlet Knights kept getting open looks from beyond the arc from a generous Iowa defense, with Harper and Geo Baker hitting back-to-back 3s to help push the lead to 65-45.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s getting better and better,\u201d Pikiell said of Harper. \u201cI think he\u2019s going to be a really good player, and we got a little dose of that.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
Senior Nicholas Baer scored a season-high 17 points and Tyler Cook had 16 for Iowa (21-8, 10-8), which closed to 72-60 before allowing back-to-back dunks.<\/p>\n
The Hawkeyes shot just 8 of 29 on 3s.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going through a small rough patch, I guess. Even in our wins we haven\u2019t been playing our greatest ball,\u201d Cook said. \u201cBut the fun part about it is finding a way to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n