IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Bennett Stirtz scored 19 points and Iowa handed new coach Ben McCollum a 101-69 win over Robert Morris to open the season on Tuesday night.
Stirtz, who was the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year last season, and five teammates followed McCollum from Drake. Former Drake Bulldogs Tavion Banks and Cam Manyawu added 17 and 10 points, respectively.
Alvaro Folgueiras, who was the Horizon League Player of the Year at Robert Morris last year, had 11 points with three 3-pointers against his former team. Isaia Howard and Brendan Hausen both had 10 points for the Hawkeyes, who shot 62% and went 36 of 44 from the foul line.
Nikolaos Chitikoudis scored 14 points to lead the Colonials, who had 23 turnovers the Hawkeyes turned into 33 points. Ryan Prather Jr. added 12 points and DeSean Goode had 11.
Iowa never trailed and a 14-0 run made it 17-2 barely five minutes into the game. Stirtz made 5 of 6 shots for 15 points and the Hawkeyes shot 64% to race to a 49-26 halftime lead.
Chitikoudis had 12 first-half points for the Colonials, who had 13 turnovers.
Iowa had a 23-6 run in the middle of the second half to get the lead to 84-48. Robert Morris made 10 of 13 3-pointers — after going 1 of 11 in the first half — and 12 of 19 shots overall in the second half but Iowa shot 59% and made 23 of 27 free throws.
Western Illinois visits Iowa on Saturday.
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