Jarrod Uthoff scores career high as Iowa rolls

IOWA CITY, Ia. — Iowa basketball coach Fran McCaffery has been after Jarrod Uthoff to shoot the ball more.

Just like he did Monday night.

Uthoff, who entered the game averaging 13.1 shot attempts per game, pulled the trigger 14 times while scoring 24 first-half points in a 90-56 victory over Western Illinois. He finished with a career-high 27 points, and attempted 16 shots after a brief second-half appearance in the blowout.

The 16 attempts came in 23 minutes of action. It also tied the second-most attempts of any game in Uthoff’s college career. He attempted 19 shots in 38 minutes against Gonzaga in a NCAA Tournament round-of-32 game last season. He also attempted 16 shots in 35 minutes against Michigan State at home and 16 in 37 minutes at Northwestern.

Dom Uhl added 15 points off the bench, and Adam Woodbury had 10. Uthoff also grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.

Iowa, now 7-2 heading into Thursday’s game at No. 4 Iowa State, came out on fire. The Hawkeyes made 14 of their first 19 shots from the field while jumping out to a 32-12 lead over a Western Illinois team that won at then-No. 17 Wisconsin, 69-67, to open the season.

The Hawkeyes’ first 30 points of the game were scored by eight different players. And then Uthoff got hot.

The 6-foot-9 senior made three straight 3-pointers in an 80-second flurry, then added a rebound basket to get to 24 points at the 4:24 mark of the opening half. At that point of the game, he was 9-for-12 from the field.