There were times Evan Smotrycz and Tim Hardaway Jr. were so open on the 3-point line Sunday that they had time to set their feet, check their voicemail and still get off a relatively uncontested shot.

It made life easy for the freshmen forwards during Michigan’s 87-73 win over Iowa, when both scored in double figures for the first time since Jan. 12 against Ohio State.

Hardaway Jr. scored a team-high 19 points and Smotrycz added 14 as all five Michigan starters reached double-figure scoring totals.

“As a shooter, you kind of have to have amnesia and not let the dry spells affect you,” Smotrycz said. “You just shoot them when you’re open and you knock them down.

“A lot of them were coming off of penetration and kicks and I think those are a lot easier to shoot. When they come in the flow of the offense, they are a lot easier to knock down.”

The offensive flow, of course, came easier Sunday because of sophomore point guard Darius Morris, who had the third triple-double in Michigan history with 12 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds.

Other Michigan players were making the extra pass, too. From Stu Douglass giving up a fast break layup for an easy dunk by Hardaway to the entire team looking for the open 3-point shooters.

“I think it was the best it’s been,” junior guard Zack Novak, who had three assists, said of the passing game. “We’ve really been making strides on that, especially in practice. That’s the way we’re going to win.

“When we move the ball like that and are making hard cuts, we’re getting wide open shots.”

Michigan showed that, making 58.9 percent (33 of 56) of its shots Sunday and 50 percent (14 of 28) of its 3-pointers.

Opposing point guard, former AAU teammate One of the players guarding Morris most of the night was Iowa junior point guard Bryce Cartwright. Even though he is new to the Big Ten, the Paris Junior College transfer knows Morris well.

Both are from Los Angeles — Morris attended Windward School and Cartwright went to Compton Dominguez Hills — and they played together in AAU.

“That’s my boy,” Cartwright said. “He seemed like he was sneaky, kind of. He had some assists in the second half, but I didn’t know he had all the rebounds.

“He had a good game overall.”

Cartwright didn’t have a terrible game, either, scoring 11 points and making nine assists.

Post presence Michigan has been searching for ways to score in the paint after being primarily a perimeter team the past few games.

On Sunday, they found scoring options inside again. Redshirt freshman forward Jordan Morgan scored 17 points, his third double-digit game in Big Ten play and his most since he scored 23 points against Concordia on Dec. 6.

Morgan’s backup, freshman Jon Horford, had four points and four rebounds in 11 minutes.

“Because of the way they were playing us, it opened the floor quite a bit. But I loved Jon's finishes,” Michigan coach John Beilein said. “He had a really tough finish on one and then he followed up a rebound. It was good.”

This and that Morris moved into 11th place all-time for single-season assists with 158. He sits one behind Rumeal Robinson, who had 159 in 1987-88. ... With three 3-pointers, Novak passed Douglass into seventh-place on the school's all-time list with 140. Douglass is sitting at 138.

Michael Rothstein covers Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.