IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) Iowa coach Fran McCaffery felt good about his team's chances when Adam Woodbury, his 7-foot-1 center who has long been criticized, dunked twice in the first five minutes of action on Thursday.
The junior's inept ability to dunk has been a point of frustration for Iowa fans since he first set foot on campus. But for one night, Woodbury and Company gave those fans no reason to be upset after the Hawkeyes clobbered Rutgers, 81-47.
Jarrod Uthoff led all scorers with 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting. Aaron White added another 13 with eight boards.
Rutgers had just two players score in double figures - Myles Mack had 11 and D.J. Foreman scored 10.
''This is a confidence booster,'' Uthoff said. ''Rutgers isn't bad. For us to beat them like that says something. We kind of got them sideways, and it snowballed from there.''
The win snaps a two-game losing streak for Iowa (16-10, 7-6 Big Ten), and is just the third win for the Hawkeyes in their last eight games. McCaffery and his team have a favorable schedule down the stretch. Just two of their final five opponents have a winning conference record.
The Scarlett Knights (10-17, 2-12) never really competed in what became their 10th-straight loss, a streak that started immediately after they upset No. 4 Wisconsin, 67-62, at home in Piscataway.
Iowa led 42-24 at half, thanks largely to a 19-4 run in the first 10 minutes. The lead only got bigger as the game wore on.
''With a team like (Rutgers), you kind of have to set the tempo early,'' Woodbury said. ''We tried to maintain that throughout the game. I thought we did a good job of that. We came out strong in both halves.''
On the whole, the Hawkeyes shot 51 percent from the field, and even made 8-of-17 from deep. McCaffery's bench players poured in 32 points, and four players scored in double figures.
Rutgers did not help itself, shooting 33 percent from the field on top of 19 turnovers. Only Mack and Foreman made more than two buckets all night. Mack, the leading scorer for the Scarlett Knights, made four of his six shots, but played just 21 minutes.
''Every game's different, so you've got to adjust to how that game is,'' McCaffery said. ''So you just play that game, and then you move on to the next one.''
TIP INS
Iowa: Four Hawkeyes scored in double figures, combining for 50 points: Jarrod Uthoff (14), Aaron White (13), Gabe Olaseni (12), and Peter Jok (11).
Rutgers: The Scarlett Knights put up 47 points on Thursday, the lowest total during their 10-game losing streak. The most Rutgers has scored during its skid was 80 in its loss to Minnesota on Jan. 14.
STAT LINES
Rutgers' Myles Mack scored 11 points, just under his per-game average of 14 . Kyle Denning, a senior guard for Iowa, saw the most action of his career when he checked in during the second half and logged 7 minutes.
UP NEXT
Iowa visits Nebraska on Sunday.
Rutgers hosts Indiana on Sunday.
