Alex Bentley scored 19 points and Penn State used a 12-1 run over 31/2 minutes to rally from a seven-point deficit and beat No. 14 Iowa 68-59 Thursday night.
Iowa (12-2, 0-1) led 55-48 with 6:33 to go before Penn State (12-3, 1-0) outscored the Hawkeyes 20-4 the rest of the way.
"I thought they played really well the last 5 minutes of this game. We, I thought, did a nice job for 35 minutes but we were completely outplayed the last 5 minutes," Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. "That's disappointing because that's the first time that's happened to us this year."
Zhaque Gray scored 14 points for Penn State and Nikki Greene had 10 rebounds and five blocks.
Jaime Printy led Iowa with 17 points and Kelly Krei added 14.
Iowa led 46-42 with 13:36 to go when Bentley went to the bench with four fouls. Over the next 7 minutes, the Hawkeyes built their lead to 7. Bentley re-entered the game at the 7:25 mark and, a minute later, Penn State started its 20-4 run.
Bentley scored four points and Gray seven, including two three-pointers, during the run. Gray's 3-pointer off a behind-the-back pass from Bentley gave Penn State the lead for good at 58-56.
"We made the big shots when we needed them down the stretch," Penn State coach Coquese Washington said. "Zha Zha made some huge shots down the stretch. Alex made a really big basket driving to the basket."
The Nittany Lions held Iowa 14 points below the 72.7 points per game it had been averaging.
"I'm happy with our defensive effort," Washington said. "We held Iowa to 59 points and I think they were averaging around 73 points. That's something that we really stressed."
