Just when you think you have the 2019-20 Nebraska team figured out, a game like Tuesday night happens.

Despite coming in as heavy underdogs and being on the heels of an ugly home loss to Rutgers four days earlier, the Huskers set the tone from start to finish and knocked off Iowa 76-70.

Junior guard Thorir Thorbjarnarson matched his career-high with 17 points and hauled in a team-high nine rebounds while sophomore guard Cam Mack finished with 15 points and a game-high 10 assists to lead five NU players scoring in double figures.

After barely shooting above 30 percent in the past two outings, Nebraska went 49.2 percent from the field and hit 10 3-pointers vs. the Hawkeyes. On the other side, the Hawkeyes shot a season-low 4-of-33 from behind the arc and attempted just five free throws.

The Huskers improved to 7-8 overall and 2-2 in Big Ten Conference play with the victory, and head coach Fred Hoiberg – who faced off with Iowa eight times as a player and coach at Iowa State – improved to 8-1 all-time against UI.

“It was exactly what we worked on the last few days,” Hoiberg said. “Guys went out and really bought into the game plan and believed in it."

Nebraska packed the paint and keyed in on potential All-American center Luka Garza from the opening tip, which led to Iowa starting just 1-of-17 from 3-point range to the start the game and taking threes on 17 of its first 25 shot attempts.

That helped the Huskers jump out to a 23-11 lead after a 14-2 run with just over eight minutes remaining in the half.

Garza finally got going and scored six of eight straight Iowa points to cut the lead down to 30-27 with 3:23 left, but a pair of 3-pointers by Cheatham and freshman Kevin Cross helped send NU into halftime with a 38-31 advantage.

Senior guard Cheatham scored 13 of his 14 points in the first half on a perfect 4-of-4 shooting, as Nebraska went 36.7 percent from the field and made 7-of-16 from behind the arc. The Hawkeyes, on the other hand, went just 2-of-19 from downtown and only shot one free throw in the first 20 minutes.

“We felt our only chance of winning this game was to sit two or three bodies in the paint at all times and then close out to the shooters,” Hoiberg said. “We did a good job of that… If Garza got the ball, he was going to score it…

“For the guys to come out and play with that type of intensity and effort after a disappointing last home game says a lot about our guys, and hopefully it’s one that we can build on.”

Iowa came right at Nebraska to start the second half with eight paint points in the first four minutes and pulled within two after a layup by Joe Weiskamp.

Wieskamp then gave the Hawkeyes their first lead of the night at 51-50 on his first made 3-pointer (he missed his first seven) with 12:40 left to play.

A dunk by freshman Kevin Cross put NU back up 58-53, but Iowa again came back to tie it at 59-59 on a runner by Joe Toussaint with just over 5 minutes left to play.

That’s when Thorbjarnarson stepped up with back-to-back deep 3-pointers to put Nebraska back in control at 65-61 with 4:10 remaining.

The Huskers made it interesting after Cross and Mack failed to convert at the free-throw line and Toussaint turned them into a transition layup to cut it to 70-66 with 1:04 left in the game.

But an emphatic breakaway dunk by junior Dachon Burke on the ensuing inbound play put the finishing touches on the upset. In all, Nebraska led for 37:41 of the 40-minute game.

“They weren’t in the rhythm, and we were making shots,” Thorbjarnarson said. “I think our emphasis on letting certain guys shoot and packing the paint, closing out the guards, I think the game plan went perfectly. They had one run in the second half, where I think they got up one (51-50). I think we led the rest of the way, so I think we did a really good job not letting them back in the game.”

Burke finished with 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting while Cross had 11 points and five boards in 11 minutes off the bench. Wieskamp led Iowa with a game-high 21 points but did so on just 10-of-23 shooting and was 1-for-10 from 3-point range.

Iowa ended up out-rebounding Nebraska 48-34 overall and 19-6 on the offensive glass, owned a 52-26 edge in points in the paint, and out-scored NU in second-chance points 17-3. But the Huskers counted by shooting 26 free throws to the Hawkeyes’ five (and making 12 more of them) and six more 3-pointers on seven fewer attempts.

“The big thing, again, it was all about bringing a physicality to this game,” Hoiberg said. “We’ve played four league games now and played three really good games, probably three of our better games of the season… For us to come out and bounce back with a big win, I just wanted to see us compete and take a step in the right direction, win or lose.

“That stuff takes care of itself when you go out and play the right way. When you go out and play with that type of effort and intensity and follow the game plan the way we did, it gives yourself a chance.

The Huskers will return to action on Saturday when they travel to take on Northwestern for a 3:30 p.m. CT tip on Big Ten Network.

1. Nebraska's defensive gameplan worked to perfection

From an individual match-up standpoint, there probably won’t be a more difficult player for Nebraska to handle than Garza. That’s what makes the Huskers’ defensive effort on the 6-foot-11, 260-pound junior so impressive.

It’s crazy to think that a guy could put up 16 points and 18 rebounds and you feel good about it, but NU made life difficult for Garza every time he touched the ball and made Iowa find someone else to win the game.

Garza didn’t score or even take his first shot in the paint until the 7:41 mark of the first half. Whenever he got the ball on the block, two or three defenders would swarm around him and hack at the ball until he passed it back out.

That’s a bit of a dangerous gamble given Garza’s solid passing ability and Iowa being a 37-percent 3-point shooting team that averages 8.4 made threes per game. But it was a risk Nebraska had to take, and it worked to perfection.

The Huskers got lucky that Iowa had its worst perimeter shooting night of the season (which was aided by 50-percent 3-point shooter CJ Fredrick being out with an injury), but you also have to credit Hoiberg and Doc Sadler’s defensive game plan.

That was the only way NU was going to have a chance tonight, and it played out to perfection.

2. The Huskers were the aggressors from start to finish

You can examine all of the stats and numbers you want from this game, but many of the plays that ultimately defined Nebraska’s upset over Iowa won’t show up in the final box score.

Things like pestering Garza from the opening tip, diving for one loose ball after another, and attacking the basket and drawing 21 fouls for a plus-21 free-throw advantage all added up as the night wore on.

Mack was tough, playing a game-high 39 minutes and finishing with 10 assists to just one turnover. Thorbjarnarson was tough, scoring 10 of his career-high 17 points in the second half while hauling in a season-high nine boards.

The best example, though, was freshman walk-on Charlie Easley. Even though he scored just one point and missed all three field goals he took, Easley still added two steals, an assist, and a rebound in a career-high 16 minutes off the bench.

The highlight was when the 6-2, 190, former Lincoln (Neb.) Pius X product out-muscled 6-10, 255, Ryan Kriener for a loose ball. That sheer effort and determination elicited the biggest roar from the crowd of the night.

Nebraska only played three guys off the bench in the win, but those three – Easley, Cross, and senior forward Matej Kavas – combined to post a plus-21 scoring margin.

If the Huskers can get that type of fight out of every player who steps on the floor on a consistent basis, they’ll be able to compete with most anyone in the conference.

3. Green’s latest absence was especially notable

Many fans were quick to recognize that Nebraska’s two best overall performances of the season thus far – the overtime loss at Indiana and then the home win over Purdue last month – had one glaring common denominator.

Junior guard Jervay Green, who had started the first nine games, was abruptly suspended hours before tip-off at Indiana, and the Huskers responded by playing their best basketball of the year. With Green still suspended two days later vs. Purdue, it was more of the same.

Green returned to the lineup and NU immediately dropped a thud of a loss at home to North Dakota, had to fight off Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, and then got whipped by Rutgers. In the loss to the Scarlet Knights, Green’s plus/minus was a staggering -22.

Green suited up again on Tuesday night, but he didn’t leave the bench the entire game. Hoiberg said afterward that Green was held out against Iowa per coach’s decision, as he wanted to go back to the rotation that worked so well in those two early Big Ten games.

“It’s just a decision I made before the game,” Hoiberg said. “I went back to the rotation where we played two of our better games of the season against Purdue and Indiana. I had a talk with him before the game that that was the direction I was going to go in this one.”

It will be very interesting to see what Nebraska does with Green going forward, especially after having the undeniable evidence that its three best performances of the season came in his absence.