McCaffery wins No. 350 as Iowa beats Marquette 89-61

MILWAUKEE (AP) Fran McCaffrey reached a milestone, but enjoyed how his Iowa team played even more.

McCaffrey won his 350th career game and Peter Jok scored 20 points to lead six players in double figures as Iowa cruised past Marquette 89-61 on Thursday night.

Jarrod Uthoff scored 15 points, Anthony Clemmons 11, Mike Gesell 11, Adam Woodbury 10 and reserve Dom Uhl 10 for Iowa (3-0).

''I think that's probably our greatest strength as a team,'' McCaffrey said about the balanced scoring. ''We share the ball. We move the ball. Six guys in doubles. Nobody cares who the leading scorer is. That's a good feeling.''

Another good feeling he had was how the team shared the ball. Clemmons had seven of Iowa's 25 assists and each starter had at least two.

McCaffery (350-252) also won his 99th at Iowa (99-75) in his sixth season since being named head coach in 2010. He's won 20-plus games the previous three seasons, Iowa's longest streak in 15 years, and taken the Hawkeyes to the NCAA Tourney the last two.

Iowa's offense and defense was too much for Marquette.

The Hawkeyes shot 55 percent from the field and the same percent from behind the arc. The Golden Eagles hurt themselves, going 39 percent from the floor and 23 percent from long range.

''We focused on playing defense,'' Jok said. ''Offense will always be there. We're going to score. So, our main purpose tonight was defense, and that's how we came out.''

It was a good return to action for Jok. He missed the Nov. 15 game against Coppin State after suffering an ankle injury in the season opener against Gardner-Webb.

Trailing 48-21 at halftime, Marquette (1-2) scored the first eight points of the second half and pulled to 48-29, but Iowa countered with its own 8-0 run. Woodbury started it with a 14-foot jump shot after a Marquette turnover and Uthoff's basket ended it as Iowa led 57-30. Marquette never challenged the rest of the way as Iowa led by at least 25the rest of the way.

Haanif Cheatham led Marquette with 12 points and Jajuan Johnson and Duane Wilson each had 11. Luke Fischer scored eight points before fouling out with 8:32 to go in the second half.

Marquette coach Steve Wojciechowski was none too pleased with the results.

''Tonight was unacceptable,'' he said. ''I think we got exposed in every facet of the game. That's not the way a Marquette team should play.''

Marquette won the tip, but not much else as Iowa used its height and experience of four seniors and a junior in the starting lineup to take a 48-21 lead at the half.

The Hawkeyes led from the start and made 19 of 38 shots while Marquette sank eight of 31 attempts from the field. Jok scored 11 points and Clemmons 9 for Iowa in the half, including 2 coming when he dunked after one of Marquette's 12 turnovers and gave Iowa a 28-8 lead with 8:17 left before the break.

Wojciechowski also took the blame for the poor performance.

''I take full responsibility for it,'' he said. ''I didn't have my team ready to play in that level of game. I take full responsibility for it.''

Iowa did a masterful job on Marquette's leading scorer, Henry Ellenson who came in averaging 19.5 points. He was held to 3 points on 1 of 8 shooting.

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TIP-INS

Iowa: The Hawkeyes are 57-2 when holding opponents to fewer than 61 points and is 41-6 when scoring 80 points or more the last six seasons.

Marquette: The 21 points scored by Marquette in the first half were the fewest since scoring 6 against Wisconsin on Dec. 6, 2014. ... The Golden Eagles last win over Iowa was an 86-70 victory on Dec. 8, 1973.

IT'S BEEN AWHILE

Iowa and Marquette met for the 18th time but the first since the Hawkeyes' 87-77 win in Iowa City on Dec. 8, 1982.

AWAY FROM HOME

Iowa plays four consecutive road games before hosting Florida State on Dec. 2.

JUST NOT FALLING

Coming in, Marquette had made 9 of 43 (20.9%) from three-point range in its first two games. Against Iowa, they shot 7 of 30 (23.3%).

UP NEXT

Iowa: Plays Dayton in the Advocare Invitational in Orlando, Florida on Thanksgiving Day.

Marquette: Faces No. 23 LSU in the Legends Classic in New York on Nov. 23.