IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) Pierre Pierce and Adam Haluska scored 17 points apiece and No. 23 Iowa overcame a sloppy effort to beat UNC-Greensboro 83-58 Saturday night and win the Hawkeye Challenge.
Turnovers kept Iowa (6-1) from breaking the game open until some crisp passing sparked a late 22-5 run that stretched the Hawkeyes' lead to 29.
Jeff Horner added 14 points and 11 assists, and Greg Brunner had 12 points for Iowa, which won its tournament for the 22nd time in 23 years and improved to 45-1 in the event.
Iowa shot 50.8 percent, so the Hawkeyes 21' turnovers - 13 in the first half - weren't as costly as they might have been. It was Iowa's fourth straight game shooting better than 50 percent.
Kyle Hines led UNC-Greensboro (4-2) with 14 points, and Josh Gross scored 13. The Spartans turned the ball over 22 times and shot just 34 percent.
Iowa was leading 61-49 when Mike Henderson hit a 3-pointer from the left wing to get the Hawkeyes going. Brunner had two dunks during the run, the second on a sharp bounce pass down the lane from Horner.
Horner also fed Pierce for a layup, and Erek Hansen converted a three-point play before Haluska and Horner capped the burst with consecutive 3-pointers. That made it 83-54 with 2:54 remaining and the Hawkeyes coasted from there.
They weren't coasting early, however.
Despite hitting four 3-pointers in the first 8 minutes, two by Horner, Iowa couldn't shake Greensboro. The Hawkeyes made sloppy passes that led to easy steals by the Spartans, who had a problem of their own: They couldn't convert.
Ricky Hickman, who suffered through 4-for-14 shooting, missed a breakaway layup, Gross was left hanging helplessly on the rim after missing a dunk, and Ray Bristow couldn't get a layup to go down after a steal. During one stretch of less than a minute, both teams threw the ball away twice before Pierce scored on a reverse layup.
After being stuck on 33 for 4 minutes, Iowa finished the half with an 8-0 run to go up 41-25. Pierce sank two free throws before hitting a long 3-pointer from the left wing, and Haluska nailed a 3 with 45 seconds left in the half.
