Hawkeyes pull away for a win over Southern
The Kenny Arnold Classic continued at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Thursday night, with the Hawkeyes taking on Southern. It was a bit of a strange game, as Iowa held a double-digit lead for the majority of the night, but couldn’t find that final gear to finish with a blowout. They finally got the lead over 20 points in the final six minutes and finished off an 89-74 win over the Jaguars to move to 2-0 on the young season.
Pryce Sandfort put up a career-high 22 points, including knocking down six of eight from behind the arc. His brother, Payton, did pretty well for himself, finishing with 17 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Owen Freeman added on 15 points and eight rebounds, while Drew Thelwell put up 12 points off the bench. 18 made three-pointers was just two shy of the single-game program record.
“We have a lot of good shooters and obviously that’s what helped us tonight,” said Owen Freeman. “The three ball was killer tonight.”
In the early going, Southern was, for the most part, step for step with the Hawkeyes, but it became increasingly clear that the Sandfort brothers were going to have a big impact. Back-to-back three-pointers from Pryce and Payton extended the Iowa lead to 24-13 and forced Southern head coach Kevin Johnson to take a timeout.
Later in the half, Morehead State transfer Drew Thelwell hit a three to give Iowa their largest lead of the half at 38-22, but the Jaguars chipped away. A 15-6 run by Southern cut it to a six-point lead, but Pryce Sandfort hit a big three in the closing seconds to send Iowa to the locker room up 48-37.
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In the second half, the game seemed to sit in an odd spot. Southern couldn’t make a run like they did in the first half and Iowa couldn’t turn it into a full blowout. For nearly 15 game minutes, the lead never got lower than 11 points, but never got higher than 18 points. Until it did.
Payton Sandfort buried a three-pointer late in the shot clock and that was followed by a second chance three-pointer from Josh Dix on the next possession to make it 84-62. They were able to cruise from there to win 89-74.
The Hawkeyes shot 53.3% from the floor and 45.0% from three-point range. They totaled 26 assists to 12 turnovers, but lost the battle on the glass 36-35. Fran McCaffery mentioned after the game that they need to be tougher on the defensive end of the floor. Southern shot 47.7% for the game and 57.1% in the second half alone.
Up Next: The Hawkeyes will host the South Dakota Coyotes next Tuesday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena to wrap up the Kenny Arnold Classic. Tipoff is set for 8:00pm CT on the Big Ten Network.
