Road remains unkind to the Hawkeyes
The road continues to be unkind to the Iowa basketball team. Also the Hawkeyes continue to give up far too many points when they leave the friendly confines of Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Last time it was 116 at Wisconsin. This time it was nearly cracking the century mark in a 99-89 loss on the road at USC, which saw the Trojans never trail.
The Hawkeyes fall to 12-5 on the season and 3-3 in Big Ten Conference play following the defeat. Iowa is scheduled to face UCLA on the road on Friday evening in Los Angeles. Iowa was led in scoring by Owen Freeman, who had a career best 23 points and 6 rebounds, while Payton Sandfort rallied the Hawkeyes in the second half, scoring 20 points in the contest.
It was rebounding and three point shooting from the Trojans that did in the Hawkeyes. USC ended the night with a 37-20 edge on the glass and getting beat 50-34 in paint scores. The Trojans come into the game making six three point field goals per game and made ten overall on Tuesday night.
The first half of this game was all about USC raining in three point field goals. They came into the game averaging six made three pointers per game. In the first 20 minutes, they knocked down 7 of 11 from distance and shot 61% overall.
Doing much of the damage in the first half was Wesley Yates. He came into the contest averaging 10 points a game. He hit for 16 points, including 4-5 from distance. The Trojans scored the first five points of the game before the Hawkeyes got on the board.
An Owen Freeman layup cut the lead to 7-5 before USC went on an 10-3 run. The only bucket for Iowa was a three pointer from Brock Harding and the lead grew to 17-8. Freeman knocked down a three and Harding scored on a floater to bring Iowa to within four, 17-13, but that was as close as Iowa could get the rest of the half.
The Trojans finished the half on a 14-5 run and sent both teams to the locker room with a 48-32 lead for USC. In that stretch, Yates his two of his four first half three point field goals.
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In the second half it was much of the same from the Trojans and the Hawkeyes. Josh Dix and Payton Sandfort did pick their offense. Dix hit a three to start to the scoring for Iowa after the break and Drew Thelwell was in attack mode on offense trying to get to the rim. Payton Sandfort hit a three to put the lead to 13 at 57-44.
Iowa kept hanging around and hanging around in this one. After a layp by Freeman, Iowa was down 12, at 68-56 and seemingly about to make this a ball game. But, then the Trojans come out of the timeout scored the next seven points and the lead ballooned to the largest of the night at 75-56.
Instead of mailing it in, Iowa kept on fighting. A three from Thelwell, who had 16 points in the game, got the lead back down to 13 at 77-64. After trading buckets Iowa made one final push. Payton Sandoft scored five points and his brother Pryce hit a three pointer. After a Trojan timeout, Thelwell scored and Iowa had cut the lead to 81-74.
The Hawkeyes cut the lead down to five on a pair of occasions. Once after a drive by Thelwell and another after he converted a pair of free throws to make it 85-80. But, the Trojans salted this one away from the foul line to lock this one up.
