IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) " Iowa took the court against Northwestern on the skids and desperately needing a victory.

Thanks in large measure to Devan Bawinkel, the Hawkeyes got it.

Bawinkel broke out of a long scoring slump with a season-high 15 points, Matt Gatens scored 16 and Iowa snapped a four-game losing streak with a 78-65 victory over Northwestern on Wednesday night.

"It's just nice to get a win," Bawinkel said. "We didn't turn the ball over too much. But the other thing is we hit big shots when we needed to hit shots. We kept the lead on them. We didn't allow them to get back into the game."

Aaron Fuller added 13 points and 11 rebounds and Jarryd Cole also scored 13 for Iowa (9-16, 3-9 Big Ten), which delayed Northwestern's bid for a school record-tying 17th regular-season victory.

Michael Thompson's 20 points led Northwestern (16-8, 5-7), while John Shurna scored 16. No one else had more than seven points for the Wildcats, who fell behind by 15 in the first half and never rallied.

"We just got smacked pretty good," Northwestern coach Bill Carmody said. "I don't know what else to say."

Bawinkel, who had scored only 12 points in the previous six games, found numerous openings against the Northwestern zone and hit four of his first five 3-point shots.

He finished 5-for-8 from long range and reached double figures for the first time since scoring 11 against Prairie View A&M on Dec. 5.

"Once I saw my first one go in, I got confidence the rest of them would," Bawinkel said. "Plus, I was getting a lot of good looks. In a 1-3-1 (zone), we know the corner's going to be open. Guys penetrated the middle, the corner was open and I didn't really have too many guys contesting my shots."

With Bawinkel setting the pace, Iowa made 12 of 24 3-point shots against a team that entered the game leading the Big Ten in 3-point percentage defense (.290). The Hawkeyes also committed only eight turnovers, just two in the first half.

"They kind of egg you into throwing stupid passes," Gatens said of the Wildcats. "I thought our guys did a good job of staying poised and staying patient with the ball. Don't throw the first pass you see because they're probably going to pick it off."

Iowa shot better than 40 percent only once during its losing streak, but the Hawkeyes were sharp from the start in this one and never trailed. Gatens hit a 3-pointer less than 30 seconds into the game and the shots kept falling after that.

The 78 points represented Iowa's best total in a Big Ten game this season and the most since the Hawkeyes beat South Carolina State 82-69 on Dec. 21.

"I've been saying all year I think we're a good shooting team," Iowa coach Todd Lickliter said. "A lot of times, our shots just didn't go down."

The Hawkeyes built a 35-22 halftime lead and were up by as many as 19 late in the game. Northwestern, sixth nationally in 3-point field goals at 9.3 per game, made just 3-of-12 from long range in the first half and finished 8-for-26.

"They made us play badly," Carmody said. "They guarded, they ran their offense, they deserve the credit for it. I'm disappointed in my team, but (Iowa) had a lot to do with it."

Bawinkel entered the game six minutes in and hit his first 3 at the 11:51 mark to give the Hawkeyes a 17-9 lead.

He then knocked down three more 3s over the next 6 minutes, the last one putting Iowa up 28-18. Brennan Cougill's 3-pointer from the top of the key capped a 7-2 run that increased the lead to 35-20 before Northwestern's Mike Capocci scored on a put-back just ahead of the halftime buzzer.

Northwestern got the lead under double figures only once in the second half, pulling within 40-31 on Shurna's long 3. But Cully Payne, Gatens and Cougill answered with 3-pointers to return the momentum to the Hawkeyes and the Wildcats never made another serious run.

After winning at Indiana on Jan. 24, Iowa had lost consecutive games to Ohio State, Michigan, Illinois and Ohio State again. Not that Lickliter was counting.

"I really don't look at streaks," he said. "I don't look at anything other than the task at hand, the opportunity. That's what's important to me."

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.