Utah ends Iowa's NIT run
The three point line can be the difference in a college basketball game. It was earlier in the week when Iowa beat Kansas State and it was on Sunday evening when Utah ended the Hawkeye basketball season in the season round of the NIT.
The Utes made 12-31 from deep and Gabe Madsen bombed in seven of them on his way to a career high 31 points in their 91-82 victory in the second round of the National Invitational Tournament. With the loss, Iowa’s season ends with a 19-15 record.
Neither team shot the ball well in the first few minutes. After a Tony Perkins three, Iowa was just 5-3. That would prove to be the only points that the senior guard would score in the game. An Owen Freeman layup gave Iowa a 7-5 edge in the game. That proved to be Iowa’s final lead in the contest. Freeman finished with 12 points and 7 rebounds.
A Josh Dix jumper cut the lead to three at 14-11, but the Utes started to find their footing from beyond the arch. Three triple in that stretch, including the last two by Madsen and point guard Deivon Smith to put Utah up by the count of 25-16. While Madsen’s career scoring game grabs the headlines, Smith finished with a triple-double of 19 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists.
Iowa made their first push of the opening half with Brock Harding dropping in a three pointer. Harding came off the bench to score 12 points and hand out 4 assists. Two buckets by Freeman followed by a layup by Payton Sandfort cut the lead down to five, 32-27. Sandfort, who is Iowa’s leading scorer, was held to five points on 1-11 shooting.
Utah then put their foot on the gas with Madsen going on his own personal 9-0 run and in total a 13-0 run to make the score 45-27. However, Iowa fought back before halftime with a 9-2 run to make it 48-36 at half.
The Hawkeyes showed some serious fight in the early stages of the second half. Ben Krikke in particular made the strongest push. His putback followed by layup and a Patrick McCaffery free throw cut the lead down to five, 59-54. McCaffery, who was likely playing his final game with the Hawkeyes, finished with a team high 19 points.
Krikke answered two points by Utah to get that lead back down to five points. However, the Utes went on an 18-5 run in the next few minute and that essentially ended the game. In that stretch, Madsen hit two three point field goals and Hunter Erickson also hit one and the score was 79-61 and the game was out of reach.
The Hawkeyes did trim the deficit to ten late after a Harding layup, but it never got under that number until McCaffery hit a three in the final seconds to reach the final score.
