Penn State Penn State/Iowa Iowa Men's College Basketball recap on ESPN

Now all coach Steve Alford has to do is find a way to beat a very familiar foe in the finals. That would be Indiana, the team he led to the 1987 national championship as a player.

Reggie Evans scored a career-high 30 points and had a tournament-record 18 rebounds – matching the total for the entire Penn State team – as sixth-seeded Iowa routed the Nittany Lions 94-74 in Saturday's semifinals.

Now, bring on Indiana. The fourth-seeded Hoosiers earned their way to Sunday's championship by knocking off top-seeded Illinois 58-56 Saturday.

The Hawkeyes (21-11) have regrouped since losing Luke Recker to a broken kneecap after a 71-66 victory over Indiana in Iowa City on Jan 27. They dropped seven of their next nine, but have now won three straight, beating Northwestern in the first round and upsetting third-seeded Ohio State with a big rally in the quarterfinals.

The muscular 6-foot-8, 245-pound Evans was too much for the weary Nittany Lions (19-11), who upset Michigan State in the quarterfinals. With Evans controlling the inside and the Hawkeyes shooting 57 percent, Iowa had a commanding 48-18 rebounding edge.

A large and noisy contingent of Iowa fans chanted "Reggie-Reggie-Reggie" after the large scoreboard at the United Center posted that Evans had set the single-game rebounding record. The previous mark was 16, shared by Michigan's Robert "Tractor" Traylor and Minnesota's Dusty Rychart.

Gyasi Cline-Heard, whose buzzer-beating layup got the Nittany Lions past Michigan in the opening round, led Penn State with a career-high 26 points. Joe Crispin added 19. But the Nittany Lions shot just 37 percent.

Dean Oliver added 15 points for Iowa, which made 36 of 48 free throws.

The Hawkeyes started quickly and Penn State came out flat and never recovered.

Iowa made six of its first seven shots and built a 20-4 lead. Penn State missed eight of its first nine field goal attempts and didn't get on track until Crispin hit his second 3-pointer to cut the Iowa lead to 29-19 lead.

But the Hawkeyes kept finding the range and Evans, a junior college transfer who averaged 11.8 rebounds a game this season, controlled the boards.

He had 14 points and 11 rebounds in the opening half. The Hawkeyes shot 62 percent and had a 24-7 rebounding edge to take a 49-33 lead.

Penn State got within 11 in the second half, but the leg-tired Nittany Lions had nothing left and the Hawkeyes surged to an insurmountable lead.

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Penn State Clubhouse

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