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Iowa advances to NIT semifinal after beating Virginia

Iowa Virginia

Down the stretch of the regular season, Iowa was in the conversation as an NCAA bubble team. The Hawkeyes missed out on the Big Dance, but they’re now headed to New York City in pursuit of an NIT championship.

Iowa overcame the pace and defense of a tough Virginia team Wednesday to win, 75-64, on the road at John Paul Jones arena in Charlottesville, Va.

Roy Devyn Marble led Iowa in scoring with 24 points on 8-of-16 shooting and added five assists, four rebounds, and four steals. Center Adam Woodbury was two rebounds away from a double-double with 10 points and eight rebounds.

Credit goes most directly to the Iowa defense, which forced 16 turnovers, this coming against a Virginia team that is one of the best in the nation at not turning the ball over with only about 11 per game coming into Wednesday night. Getting those turnovers allowed Iowa to get out in transition and dictate the pace against a team that would prefer to play a game in the 50s or 60s offensively.

The Hawkeyes also did a good job of stretching the Virginia defense away from the basket with consistent shooting from the perimeter. Iowa was 8-of-17 from deep and did well to spread the ball around to capitalize on those open looks.

Iowa now moves on to play Maryland in the NIT semifinals in New York City. Maryland beat Alabama in the quarterfinals to advance to the next round.

Daniel Martin is a writer and editor at JohnnyJungle.com, covering St. John’s. You can find him on Twitter:@DanielJMartin_