Hannes Steinbach is becoming a double-double machine for Washington.
The 6-foot-11 German freshman brings a string of four straight double-doubles into Wednesday night’s home game against Iowa in Seattle. The latest was a 22-point, 14-rebound performance Saturday in a 76-62 win at Northwestern, giving him team-leading averages of 17.6 points and 11.4 rebounds for the season.
Steinbach’s 14 double-doubles are tied with Isaiah Stewart for the Huskies’ freshman record. He has seven games with at least 20 points and 10 rebounds, five against Big Ten Conference foes.
“I could go on and on about Hannes,” said second-year coach Danny Sprinkle. “Every time they made a run, he made a 3 to stymie their momentum. We did a decent job of getting the ball to Hannes, and he did a good job of finding the open man.”
Washington (12-10, 4-7 Big Ten) also got 22 points, six rebounds and six assists from Zoom Diallo, who’s second on the team with 15.2 points per game. Wesley Yates III added 21 points and made a career-high five 3-pointers.
Meanwhile, the Hawkeyes (16-5, 6-4) are trying to complete a sweep of their road trip after beating Oregon 84-66 on Sunday in Eugene. Senior point guard Bennett Stirtz lit up the Ducks for a career-high 32 points on just 15 shots in Iowa’s fourth consecutive win.
Stirtz also dished out seven assists without a turnover, making him the first Iowa player to put up a 30-5-0 stat line since Jordan Bohannon in 2022. Stirtz, who earlier last week scored 20 in a win over Southern California, shared Big Ten Player of the Week honors with Michigan State’s Jeremy Fears Jr.
In addition to Stirtz’s performance, first-year coach Ben McCollum liked his team’s defense. The Hawkeyes held short-handed Oregon to 41.1% shooting from the field (23 of 56), including 6 of 25 from the 3-point line.
“We were really engaged defensively,” he said. “I thought they did a great job.”
One concern for Iowa is the status of forward Tavion Banks, who played a season-low 11 minutes at Oregon due to injury. McCollum said Tuesday that he thinks Banks will play at Washington.
