University of Missouri
#15 Iowa
Men's Hoops Falls To No. 15 Iowa, 83-65
12/15/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec 15, 2001
By R.B. FALLSTROM
AP Sports Writer
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) - As Iowa players headed for the tunnel after humbling No. 2 Missouri, Reggie Evans let out a yell.
"Give us our trophy back!" Evans said after No. 15 Iowa's 83-65 victory over No. 2 and previously unbeaten Missouri Saturday night.
Luke Recker scored a career-high 31 points and helped stifle All-America Kareem Rush, and Iowa (9-3) also got 15 points and 17 rebounds from Reggie Evans, avenging a bitter loss to the Tigers about a month ago.
"We can't make up for that loss," Recker said. "But we win tonight in a lot tougher environment."
Missouri (9-1) scored 16 of the last 20 points for a 78-77 victory in the championship game of the Guardians Classic on Nov. 21 in Kansas City, but with a standing-room crowd of 13,545 watching shot a season-worst 33.3 percent in the rematch.
"There's no quicker and more accurate way to find out who you are and where you are than to play a good team and have it completely handed to you," coach Quin Snyder said.
Evans' fifth straight double-double and eighth of the season helped Iowa dominate on the boards, with the Hawkeyes holding a 48-35 advantage. Evans also tied for the team lead with five assists and played all 40 minutes.
"I was about to die," Evans said. "I think if I had played one more minute I would have died.
"But the important thing is to keep the motor running."
Recker, who topped his previous high of 29 against Penn State Feb. 4, 1998, was 10-for-17, including 4-for-5 from 3-point range, and 7-for-7 from the line.
Rush, who leads the Big 12 in scoring with a 20.2 average, was 4-for-18 for 14 points - almost all of them with the game long settled - with Recker often dogging him. He missed all eight shots and had only two points in the first half, a pair of free throws with 3:05 to go, as Iowa took a 39-28 lead.
Rush also struggled in the previous game against Iowa, scoring 11 points on 4-for-15 shooting. But that game came a day after he broke his nose.
"It was just one of those games you hate to have, especially on national TV, a big-time game and a game we've been waiting for," Rush said. "It's unfortunate, we came out and had a showing like that, but hey, it's going to happen sometimes."
Rickey Paulding had 22 points, but Missouri's other big scorer, Clarence Gilbert, also was hounded into a terrible shooting game. Gilbert, who averages 19.7 points and got the winning free throw in the first game against Iowa, was held to four points on 1-for-11 shooting.
Iowa has won five of seven since the Missouri loss, and the last three, also against Iowa State and Drake, have been blowouts of 25 and 42 points.
It was the first game in nine days for Missouri and the Tigers, coming off final exams, looked tight at the outset by missing 12 of their first 14 shots.
Missouri won its first five home games this season, all against inferior competition, by an average of 35 points, and had its best start since the 1991-92 team was 11-0.
"It's a sick feeling," Snyder said. "It's a feeling that should sit in our stomachs for a while."
Iowa got 16 points from Recker in the first half and held Missouri to 28 percent shooting (9-for-32) in the first half.
After the Hawkeyes stretched the lead to 58-36 with 13:56 remaining, a 22-point bulge, Missouri briefly awoke a standing-room crowd of 13,545 by whittling the deficit to 15. But this time around, there was no comeback.
Missouri, which made a school-record 15 3-pointers in its last game against Southern, was 5-for-29 against Iowa.
