FOS, France – The University of Iowa men’s basketball team finished its European trip strong with a convincing 92-78 victory over Fos-Quest Tuesday evening. The win improved the Hawkeyes’ record to 5-1 on its travels overseas.
Freshman Peter Jok, who scored Iowa’s first seven points of the contest, finished with a game-high 17 points to lead the Hawkeyes. Junior Aaron White tallied 16 points on 7-of-7 shooting from the field, including a 3-pointer, and 1-of-1 from the free throw line. Senior Melsahn Basabe posted a double-double, scoring 13 points and pulling down 10 boards. Senior Roy Devyn Marble contributed 12 points, six rebounds and four assists.
Iowa led by as many as 12 points in the first half, but Fos-Quest took a 45-43 advantage into halftime.
The Hawkeyes came out firing in the second half, scoring the first nine points the first two minutes of the half to go in front 52-45. Fos-Quest got to within 69-66 with nine minutes left in the game, before the Hawkeyes closed the game on a 23-13 run. White scored 12 of his 16 points in the final 20 minutes, while Adam Woodbury netted all eight of his points in the second half.
“We felt like we needed to step it up defensively at the start of the second half, and we did,” said head coach Fran McCaffery. “Our defense spurred our offense again tonight. I think if you look at the entire trip collectively, I don’t think we played defense in two of the 24 quarters.”
Iowa was aggressive on the glass yet again tonight, owning a +15 rebounding advantage (46-31) over Fos-Quest.
The Hawkeyes executed their offensive sets tonight, making 54 percent (35-of-64) of its field goal attempts, including 65 percent (17-of-26) in the first half. Iowa also made 7-of-18 (39 percent) from 3-point territory, with Jok making four of Iowa’s seven triples.
The team will travel to Nice tomorrow for one last day of sightseeing before departing for the United States Thursday morning.
“This trip has been beneficial in so many ways,” McCaffery said. “The competition was good; we had to fight and compete, and came together as a group.”
