By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

MOLINE, Ill. — Fran McCaffery wasn’t sure what he would get out of Owen Freeman on Friday night.

The Iowa sophomore forward missed Tuesday’s game against South Dakota with an illness, and while his coach thought he could play in his return home against Washington State at Vibrant Arena, how much he could play was the question.

“At practice yesterday, he was gassed,” McCaffery said. “So I felt like we could get 20 minutes out of him, 18 minutes. But was it going to have to be in-and-out, in-and-out?”

The Hawkeyes got almost 30 minutes out of Freeman, got 21 points and 11 rebounds and one technical foul — we’ll get to that soon enough — and won 76-66.

No, Freeman wasn’t going to miss this game. This arena was nearly filled — 8,488 was the attendance in a venue that seats almost 10,000 for basketball — because, mostly, of the return of Freeman and teammate Brock Harding, who won a state championship at Moline High School.

And, oh, it was also Freeman’s birthday.

It’s why Freeman couldn’t help but smile in the post-game press conference.

“There isn’t a feeling like it,” he said. “I mean, you kind of saw the energy that I had — maybe a little bit too much in the first half,” Freeman said, referring to the aforementioned technical. “The Quad Cities showed out, and it was just an incredible experience.”

This was more than just a homecoming. This was a test for the Hawkeyes, one of those examinations that November delivers, that early challenge that maybe pays a bigger dividend somewhere in the crucible of Big Ten play in the winter or in a March venue somewhere.

Iowa trailed by as much as nine points in the first half after missing 7-of-10 3-pointers, 7-of-13 3-pointers and committing 10 turnovers.

“Those are the games you have to grind out with your defense, with your rebounding,” forward Payton Sandfort said. “And feeding the big guy (Freeman). They couldn’t really stop him.”

It helped that Freeman got some rest in the first half, and here’s where the technical foul came into play.

Freeman’s dunk with 7:57 left in the half gave Iowa a 19-17 lead. Freeman was so wound up on the play he tapped his head and yelled toward Washington State’s Kase Wynott, which got him the technical.

It’s why McCaffery, when asked if he could sense Freeman was fired up for this game, quipped, “I think when he got the ‘T’ I sensed it.”

It was also Freeman’s second foul, which earned him a seat on the bench for the final 7:25 of the half. That time off, though, might have helped Freeman, McCaffery said.

“I don’t think I took him out for more than two minutes in the second half,” McCaffery said.

McCaffery’s sense of time was quite accurate — Freeman played 18 minutes, 22 seconds in the second half.

As much as it was Freeman’s night, though, the final run the Hawkeyes made came from guard Drew Thelwell and forward Seydou Traore.

Thelwell hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the span of 52 seconds put Iowa up 63-62 with 3:03 left to play. Traore was at the top of the Hawkeyes’ pressure defense that forced back-to-back turnovers moments later that Iowa converted into points.

Thelwell was also part of the defensive effort on Washington State’s Nate Calmese. Calmese scored 27 points, but he went 11 minutes between his 25th points and the 26th and 27th points.

“We made a decision, we’re going to double him and get him to throw it somewhere else, and then we got to scramble, and then we’ve got to get the rebound,” McCaffery said. “And so he wasn’t as effective.”

Freeman finally came out of the game with six seconds to go as he savored the last loud ovation of the night.

As birthdays go, Freeman said, “This is No. 1. It takes the cake, for sure.”

Vibrant Arena isn’t anything like Wharton Field House, Moline’s historic gym that is less than two miles away from this game, but to Freeman, it was just as raucous.

“I kind of expected it to be kind of crazy,” Freeman said. “But, I mean, the Quad Cities showed out. It was, it was unreal. Just one of the loudest crowds I’ve played in front of.

“Just a lot of fun.”

It was fun for the Hawkeyes, too.

“The crowd absolutely played a huge factor in getting us that win,” Sandfort said.

Then he laughed, adding. “I’m not opposed to driving up here for every game at all.”

Photo: Iowa’s Drew Thelwell signs autographs after Friday’s 76-66 win over Washington State.