Eastern Illinois blows past 30-point favorite Iowa 92-83

Dec 21, 2022, 11:27 pm

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- — Kinyon Hodges scored 22 points, Caleb Donaldson added 16 and Eastern Illinois used red-hot shooting in the second half to upset cold-shooting Iowa 92-83 on Wednesday.

It was the fourth Power Five win for the Panthers, the others coming in 1974, 1987 and 2019. It was also their second win, and first in 35 years, over a Big Ten team.

Iowa was a 30-plus point favorite on .

The start of the game was moved up 4 1/2 hours due to the weather forecast, then Iowa broke out to an 18-4 lead and led 45-37 at the half.

Hodges had three straight dunks in 68 seconds to break a 55-55 tie midway through the second half as Eastern Illinois took control. A Donaldson layup had the Panthers up 75-65 with 5:26 to play and his jumper made it 82-68 with 2:50 to go.

The Panthers were 21 of 29 after intermission (72%), including 4 of 8 from 3-point range, while the Hawkeyes went 2 of 17 behind the arc and 11 of 36 overall (31%).

Only suspect foul shooting delayed the outcome. Eastern Illinois was only 9 of 17 from the line in the second half but Iowa also struggled, going 14 of 23.

Yaakema Rose and Kyle Thomas scored 13 points apiece for Eastern Illinois (4-9), which lost by 30 to Illinois and 23 to Ohio State earlier in the season. Dan Luers added 10 points.

Filip Rebraca scored 24 points, surpassing 1,500 for his career, and Payton Sandfort added 18 for the Hawkeyes (8-4), who had won 24-straight nonconference home games. Tony Perkins scored 15 points and Patrick McCaffery had 12 with a career-high 13 rebounds.

The Hawkeyes led 45-37 at the half on 47% shooting with Rebraca and Sandfort both scoring 13 points. The Panthers shot as well as Iowa but were done in by 12 turnovers that were turned into 19 points but they only had five turnovers in the second half.

Hodges was 6-of-9 shooting in the second half and had 13 points. Rose and Donaldson, who was 5 of 6, had 11 each and Luers, who made all three of his field goal attempts, two from distance, scored 10.

Iowa returns to Big Ten action on Dec. 29 at Nebraska.

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