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Hawkeyes ride red hot Perkins to win

On3 imageby:Tom Kakert•02/04/23•

HawkeyeReport

Iowa win Ill
Photo: Dennis Scheidt

The Iowa basketball team needed someone to step forward in the second half and Tony Perkins did just that. The junior guard poured in a career high 32 points, 25 of them coming in the second half, pushing Iowa to hard fought 81-79 win over Illinois on Saturday afternoon.

With the win, Iowa moves to 15-8 overall and 7-5 in the Big Ten Conference. The Illini drop to 16-7 overall and also 7-5 in league play. Both teams are one game behind Rutgers for second place in the Big Ten standings.

In a lot of ways, it’s amazing that Iowa won this game. Illinois forward Matthew Mayer jumped out early on in the game, hitting five early points to put the Illini up 9-5. Mayer scored 15 of his 21 points in the first half, but he struggled with foul trouble in the second half of the game.

The Hawkeyes opened up a bit of a lead in the middle of the first half. A jumper by Filip Rebraca put Iowa up by two. Then Payton Sandfort hit a pull-up transition three pointer to push the lead to 23-18 with 9:39 left in the first half. A Josh Dix three pointer made it 27-22 with 7:27 left in the half and then Illinois went on an 8-0 run to go ahead 30-27.

After a putback by Ty Rodgers, the Fighting Illini went ahead 36-29 with 1:23 left in the half. It looked like Iowa was going to face a significant deficit at the break before Kris Murray sank a deep three pointer at the buzzer to pull Iowa within one point at the intermission.

Iowa opened the second half scoring the first four points to take the lead, but then the Illini came roaring back. They went on an 11-0 run and opened up what felt like a comfortable 47-39 lead with 15:46 left in the game. The Hawkeyes answered that run with an 8-2 one of their own. A layup by Murray and the lead was down to two, 49-47 with 13:50 left in the game. A pair of Murray free throws and the lead stayed at two and it felt like the Hawkeyes just couldn’t get over the hump.

A Dain Dainja putback dunk put the Fighting Illini back T by seven, 62-55 with 9:48 left in the contest. Iowa answered with a  7-0 run to tie it at 62 on a three pointer by Sandfort. Perkins took over scoring 12 of the next 14 points for Iowa and the game was tied at 76 all with 2:44 left.

From there it wasn’t Perkins, but Sandfort that sealed the deal. Murray grabbed a rebounded and Connor McCaffery found Sandfort for a three pointer from the wing to give the Hawkeyes a 79-76 lead with 1:23 left.

From there the Hawkeyes salted the game away from the foul line. The charity stripe was very good to the Hawkeyes once again today. Iowa was 26-30 from the foul line over and 22-25 in the second half. Perkins tied a school record for most consecutive free throws made in a game with 15. He now shares that record with Andre Woolridge, who made 15 straight against Northwestern back in March of 1997.

Next up for the Hawkeyes is a trip to Purdue. Iowa will face the Boilermakers on Thursday evening starting at 6 pm (central). The game will be televised on ESPN2.

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