By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Ben McCollum has coached Bennett Stirtz long enough to know the point guard needs to be on the floor no matter what.

So, when Stirtz picked up his fourth foul with 8:23 left and UCLA slowly carving into the lead that Iowa had built in Saturday’s game with much of Stirtz’s help, McCollum needed to be talked out of keeping him on the court.

“I wanted to leave him in the game. My staff wouldn’t let me,” the Hawkeyes’ first-year coach said. “That’s why I was yelling at ‘em for the whole time.”

Stirtz sat for almost 3 ½ minutes, then came in and hit two of the biggest shots in the closing minutes of the No. 25 Hawkeyes’ 74-61 win at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“They were right,” McCollum admitted after the game. “I was wrong.”

Stirtz, who is averaging almost 36 minutes per game this season, was surprised at the decision as well when Kael Combs entered the game and signaled to Stirtz that he had to come out.

“I think this is the first time in my college career I’ve been in foul trouble, so I haven’t really (been) in that position,” said Stirtz, who averages exactly two fouls per game.

Stirtz passed by McCollum, and neither spoke.

“He didn’t say a word,” Stirtz said. “It was the assistant coaches that talked to me. He was too focused on the game.”

While Stirtz sat, Iowa’s lead went from 53-46 to 57-53, and McCollum knew it was time to get Stirtz back. Thirteen seconds later, Stirtz drove the lane and dropped in a shot that seemed to float out of his hand, and the lead was back to six.

McCollum quickly called a timeout, and Stirtz was out of the game again. It was part of the plan.

“We wanted to get to the media (timeout), the under-four media (timeout), so they put me in with like, five minutes to go, and then I scored a bucket, and then they brought me back out until the under four just try and get more time with me off the court,” Stirtz said.

The plan worked.

UCLA would get back within four points one more time before the Hawkeyes closed the game on a 13-4 run. The last shot would come from Stirtz, who looked like he was going to let the shot clock run out in the closing seconds and instead lofted a deep 3-pointer that snapped the net and sent the crowd of 12,657, a season high, celebrating the win into the night.

“I was surprised that I shot it,” Stirtz said. “I asked Coach Mac, ‘Do I shoot it or not?’ He said, ‘Shoot it.’ So, luckily it went in.”

Stirtz finished with 27 points, the Hawkeyes (12-2 overall, 2-1 Big Ten) had their fourth consecutive win, and McCollum was glad he listened to his staff.

“You need to be able to have your staff confront you,” McCollum said. “Because I coach, somewhat, on emotion, and they know that. When I get back after you, when it doesn’t go perfect, you have to be strong enough to stick with what you thought was the right move. And those guys were strong enough to stick with what they thought was the right decision, and they were right and I was wrong.”

Iowa had control of the game throughout the first half and into the second half. The Hawkeyes built a 24-point lead in the first half, and were up 45-24 early in the second half, before UCLA (10-4, 2-1) began to chip away at the margin.

Iowa, which shot 56.4% in the first half, made just 8 of 22 shots in the second half. The Bruins shot 50% in the second half.

“We executed our plan in the first half,” forward Alvaro Folgueiras said. “Then we had 8, 10 minutes of the second that we went off it and the game went cold.”

Folgueiras, who had 13 points, but only two in the second half, said a different pace to the game made a difference.

“I think the pace of the game was slower, and the ball has energy,” he said. “So when the ball doesn’t go as fast as we are used to it, those moments of not making the open ones can happen, and we’ve got to be able to find solutions to that.”

“I don’t know why we couldn’t get to second actions,” McCollum said. “We got stuck on first actions. Probably some adjustment they did defensively. I kept looking at it. It looked like it was the same thing. And we just didn’t get to the next action. I also think we froze a little bit. They made the run, we played not to lose.”

Donovan Dent was especially a thorn for Iowa’s defense. The guard had 25 points — five came in the last 35 seconds of the first half, and the rest in the second half.

“They didn’t really run anything,” McCollum said. “They were in the same thing over and over. First half, they were trying to run their actions. We took them out of all their actions. Second half, they just went with the top ball, with Dent and (Tyler) Bilodeau, and they’re a problem.”

McCollum thought back to the decision to sit Stirtz, and how it made a difference in the final result.

“That’s why,” he said, “you have a good staff.”

Photo: Iowa’s Bennett Stirtz (left) acknowledges the assist after hitting a shot in the first half of Saturday’s game. (Photo courtesy of Iowa Athletic Communications)