IOWA CITY, Iowa - Seniors David DuBois and Josh Rivers led Western Illinois with double-digit scoring but couldn't give Western Illinois the edge as Iowa defeated the Leathernecks, 58-43, Saturday.

With four seconds left in the first half, the Leathernecks (4-8) pulled away from the sixth tie, 22-22, for a one-point lead heading into the locker room. The Hawkeyes (10-3) came out of the break shooting as a layup and three-point shot gave Iowa a 4-point edge within one minute of the start of the half.

Western came within one twice, 27-26 and 31-30, with a three pointer from Rivers and back-to-back jumpers by DuBois, but the Hawkeyes jumped back out to six, 36-30, as Jermain Davis had five points off two jumpers. Iowa earned 10 points over the next 10 minutes from the charity stripe in addition to a layup to lead by 11 with 3:16 remaining. The Hawkeyes held Western to only a pair of field goals in the final 11:37 and extended its lead to 15 to close out the game.

Western Illinois had its greatest lead of the first half, 13-8, with layups from DuBois, Rivers and Rodney Williams, Jr. DuBois recorded eight points and David Nurse had six in the first half. Iowa's Matt Gatens and Jake Kelley put down seven and six first-half points respectively.

Overall, DuBois was one rebound from a double-double with 18 total points, while Rivers had 11 and was only held to one three-point shot. The Hawkeyes had three players in double-digit scoring co-led by Davis and Kelly with 13 points. Gatens had 11 points and led in rebounding with 10. The Leathernecks held Iowa's leading scorer Jeff Peterson, who averages 10.2 points per game, to only four points.

The Leathernecks out-rebounded the Hawkeyes, 30-28, but suffered from the field as Iowa shot 46.2 percent (18-39) to Western's 34.0 percent (16-47).

The loss marked the final non-conference game this season as Western Illinois will face Southern Utah in a Summit League matchup, December 31, at 7 p.m. at Waste Management Court in Western Hall.

Western Illinois head coach Jim Molinari postgame quotes:
“I thought we did play with a lot of effort but we have no margin for errors. We didn't kick the ball at the right time while we were driving.”

“We really fought extremely hard but we just didn't have any offensive flow. To beat Iowa you need to have your “A” game. Overall, the good thing about our team is that we are very disciplined so now we just have to figure out what we have to do going into Wednesday and Friday. We have to get ready for those games and get better and figure out plays, and I think we can do that.”

“We need to really work on our cutting and our motion offense and just do a better job at that and that's part of the process.”