Basketball is a game of runs, or so the saying goes. Saturday night, Ohio State proved that theory in a game against ninth-ranked Iowa.

After surprising everyone in the universe by jumping out to an early 20-2 lead, the Buckeyes held on despite some lapses in the game’s middle stages to defeat the Hawkeyes 72-62 in front of a raucous, sellout crowd at the Schottenstein Center.

“Obviously by the way the game started, we were very ready to play in this game,” said coach Jim O’Brien. “But I think a lot of that has to do with our crowd. If only we could get this sort of thing going every single game, because how could you not be jacked up at the beginning of that game? Our crowd was absolutely terrific.”

The crowd was not the only thing that was terrific on Saturday. The Buckeyes, who improved to 10-2 overall, 2-0 in the Big Ten with the win, were led by a couple of senior guards who turned in solid games.

Co-captain Brian Brown led the team with 19 points, including a stretch of 10 points in a row as soon as Iowa tied the game up at 30 in the second half.

“I knew I had to do something,” Brown said. “We were struggling, but I was able to get some open looks and some transition baskets. When I get open like that I play with confidence.”

The other senior with a solid performance was swing man Boban Savovic, who finished with 14 points and more important, nine assists and no turnovers.

“The way Boban has been playing, with his intelligence and his maturity, that has been a big factor for us,” O’Brien said. “Boban just has a really good feel for how to play.”

The win over the Hawkeyes, the first ranked-team the Bucks have played this year, should bring the program some of the respect they felt they were lacking.

“The whole team believes we should be ranked,” said freshman center Terence Dials. “I think we made a big statement tonight.”

Teammate Brent Darby, a junior guard, agreed with Dials’ strong assessment of the team.

“We don’t have all the big names,” he said. “We don’t have all the First Team-All Big Ten or All-American players, but what we do have is a bunch of players that can play. We have a set of guys who are pretty good at this level and we play together and we’re not selfish.

“That’s the key to us – we’re not selfish.”

Darby added 13 points, four assists and three steals in the win over Iowa. He also was one of many on the team who played exceptional defense on Iowa’s leading scorer, senior Indiana-transfer Luke Recker, who came in scoring at a clip of 19. 2 points per game.

He finished the night with only 11 on four-of-10 shooting.

“Don’t give him good shots,” Darby said when asked how OSU limited Recker’s scoring opportunities. “Make every shot he takes a difficult one. He’s a good player and he’s going to hit some shots, but if we can limit his open looks and make him take tough shots, that’s the key to it.”

The other star Hawkeye, senior forward Reggie Evans, who is usually a one-man wrecking crew in the paint, was also held relatively in check. He ended the night with 18 points and nine boards, but never seemed to get fully into the flow of the game.

“I think we contained him on the boards, he didn’t get as many as he usually does,” Dials said of Evans, who averages over 12 rebounds a game. “He really capitalized on the foul line, I think that’s where he got most of his points. But overall, I think we did a pretty good job containing him.”

The Buckeye who guarded Evans the brunt of the game, sophomore forward Zach Williams, outrebounded him 10-9.

“(Williams) gave a tremendous effort,” O’Brien said. “When you see him in the middle of things, he’s a little bit undersized and he might be a little bit slight in stature, but nobody has a bigger heart than he does.”

Williams also added 12 points.

One other inside player starting to come on as of late for the Buckeyes is Dials, who had only five points and one rebound in the game against Iowa, but added two key blocks that reminded some in the stands of former center Ken Johnson.

Dials was coming off a Purdue game in which he scored a career-high 16 points, leading OSU to victory on the road.

The Buckeyes next test will come Wednesday in Massachusetts. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.