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PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas (AP) - Aaron White scored 17 points, Zach McCabe added 14 and No. 23 Iowa rolled into the championship game of the Battle 4 Atlantis, easily beating Texas-El Paso 89-53 on Friday night.
Peter Jok scored 14 and Melsahn Basabe finished with 10 for the Hawkeyes (7-0), who have already won five times this season by at least 31 points. Iowa will meet either Kansas or Villanova for the tournament title on Saturday.
After needing overtime to beat Xavier in the quarterfinals, Iowa took care of this one early. A 13-0 run in the opening minutes put the Hawkeyes in control, and Iowa's first 20-point lead came a mere 14 minutes into the contest.
Julian Washburn scored 13 for UTEP (4-3), which will play in the third-place game Saturday. No other Miner finished with more than seven.
It was only the fifth time that the Miners lost by more than 20 points since Tim Floyd took over as coach before the 2010-11 season. UTEP's worst loss under Floyd had been a 73-49 loss to Vanderbilt at the Old Spice Classic in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. on Nov. 25, 2012.
The Miners' low for points this season had been 67 _ and that was in a blowout win. The 89 points matched the second-most allowed by UTEP since Floyd took over; the most was 100, and that was in a triple-overtime game.
Jarrod Uthoff grabbed 10 rebounds and Mike Gesell handed out seven assists for Iowa. White shot 5 for 6 from the field on his way to the 17 points, making all seven of his free throws.
The difference from Thursday to Friday could not have been more pronounced for the Hawkeyes, who never led in regulation on Thursday night against Xavier before finding a way to win in overtime.
Iowa rallied from 15 points down with 15 minutes left in that game. This time, the Hawkeyes rallied again ... from one point down with 38 minutes left, that is. Everything went their way right from the get-go, and by the time the Hawkeyes committed their first turnover, they already had 22 points and the game well in hand.
That first 13-0 run was just the harbinger of what awaited UTEP. The Miners also were on the short end of 14-4 and 12-2 spurts _ and they, just like the 13-0 burst, were all in the first half alone.
Iowa scored 69 points in regulation on Thursday _ and was at 69 points with 11:34 remaining on Friday.
So good was Iowa's offense that it didn't even need a big scoring effort from standout Devyn Marble, who scored 30 points before leaving Thursday's game with a nasty leg cramp. Marble had seven on Friday, shooting just 2 for 6 on the night.
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