Hawkeyes roll past New Hampshire in non-conference finale

There was never much doubt that the Hawkeyes were going to secure a victory over New Hampshire on Monday night to close out the non-conference slate. However, nothing in Big Ten play is a for sure, and that’s what awaits Iowa for the rest of the regular season. With what figures to be many labor-intensive games to come, Iowa’s 112-70 win over the Wildcats was anything but laborious. Now, the quest to build an NCAA Tournament worthy resume resumes, with a trip to Madison at the end of the week.

“I thought the professionalism from the minute we came back from break was really good, and now we know what’s coming,” said head coach Fran McCaffery. “No question (we accomplished what we wanted to).”

The Hawkeyes never let the winless Wildcats have any hope, jumping out to an 11-2 lead after four minutes. A corner three from Jawarie Hamelin cut Iowa’s lead to 20-11 midway through the first half, but that was the only bucket that resembled anything momentous for UNH.

The thought of momentum for the Wildcats was quickly squashed by back-to-back triples from Cooper Koch and Pryce Sandfort to make it 26-11. A 32.5-point favorite at tipoff, Iowa was off and running. The only questions that remained were, how many points do the Hawkeyes score, and how much do they win by?

“It boosts our confidence going to play against Wisconsin,” said Ladji Dembele who was in the starting lineup for the injured Owen Freeman. “We prepare for every game the same, no matter if it’s an easy win or a hard win. We’re just trying to have fun and play for each other.”

With a commanding lead for the majority of the game, Coach Fran McCaffery was able to get some extended run for his normal players off the bench, as well as those that don’t normally see the floor. No starter played more than 22 minutes, while Owen Freeman took the night off with a minor ankle injury. It never hurts to get the subs some extra minutes knowing that anyone’s number can get called during the twists and turns of Big Ten play.

“I wanted to get Cooper (Koch) and Seydou (Traore), in particular, substantial playing time to get them back comfortable,” said McCaffery. “Obviously we needed Ladji (Dembele) to step up big, like he did, but I wanted to get Chris (Tadjo), Evan (Brauns), and Riley (Mulvey) some quality playing time. I wanted to get Pryce (Sandfort) some playing time at the point. We have two really good point guards, and we play them one in, one out, but I need more to get through the season, and Pryce was terrific.”

Forward Seydou Traore, who has dealt with an ankle injury for the last month, was one of the beneficiaries of extra minutes in the win. He finished with a season-high 14 points, two rebounds and five assists. Traore will almost certainly be called on as a major contributor off the bench in Big Ten play.

“Coach (McCaffery) has a lot of trust in me, so throughout the one month stretch, where my ankle was bother me, it was definitely tough, but I had support from my family and God. I just stuck with everything, bust my tail off in the training room,” said Traore. “I can contribute in a lot more ways than what I did today. I feel like I’ve got a lot left in the tank.”

“He makes plays for other people, whether it be in transition, whether he’s facing up, or whether he goes back down game. He’s incredibly unselfish, but he’s got great vision. He can affect the game a lot of ways with his length.” said McCaffery. “When he came back (from break), he was flying around.”

Freshman Cooper Koch saw significant time on the floor as well, after dealing with health issues of his own throughout the non-conference schedule. He finished with 14 points, three rebounds and three assists over 20 minutes. Fran spoke about the importance of getting both Cooper and Seydou major minutes prior to Big Ten play restarting.

“Just needed to get them more minutes, to get shots, miss shots, make shots, make plays, get back to the physicality that’s necessary,” said McCaffery. “I was really impressed with both of them in terms of their conditioning.”

Payton Sandfort led the team in scoring with 15 points, while Ladji Dembele (12), Pryce Sandfort (11) and Josh Dix (11) scored in double figures to add to the aforementioned contributions by Traore and Koch. On the night, the Hawkeyes shot 45 of 74 (60.8%) from the floor and 10 of 29 (34.5%) from three-point range. Iowa outrebounded New Hampshire 44-38, led by Payton Sandfort with six rebounds.

Up Next: The Hawkeyes travel to Madison for a meeting with the Wisconsin Badgers on Friday night. Tipoff is set for 6:00pm CT on FS1