Hawkeyes pick up huge road win
Fran McCaffery always encourages his shooters to keep shooting. He did that with Payton Sandfort as he struggled through a shooting slump to start the season. It got so bad that Sandfort missed his first 19 shots against Big Ten teams.
That’s long gone now as Sandfort broke out of his shooting slump in a big way, helping lead the Hawkeyes to a 76-65 victory at Rutgers. The sophomore wing came off the bench and scored a team high 22 points, including 4-5 from three point range in the win. The 22 points was two points shy of his career high that he scored last month against Southeastern Missouri State.
“It felt unreal,” Sandfort told the Big Ten Network. “The people around the program know a lot of work went into this. It hasn’t been an easy stretch, but it felt great to finally break free.”
The key for the Hawkeyes was getting off to a good start. In the previous three games against Nebraska, Penn State, and Indiana, they fell behind by ten points or more at the break. This time Iowa came out of the gate and built a double figure lead of their own.
Filip Rebraca continued his strong play in the post with 12 points and 7 rebounds in the first 20 minutes. His bucket and free throw with 11:53 left in half put Iowa up 22-11. The lead grew to 13 points after a dunk by Kris Murray. The junior forward finished the day with 17 points and 7 rebounds.
Rutgers then we went on run of their own to cut the lead to four points with 3:55 left. The Hawkeyes held the Scarlet Knights scoreless for the rest of the half and posted up eight points of their own, capped by a Sandfort three pointer to lead 42-30 at the break.
Iowa’s zone defense appeared to befuddle the Rutgers players all game long. The Hawkeyes played an aggressive version of a 2-3 zone and shot only 22% from three and 35% in the first half. Meanwhile, the Hawkeyes shot 52% from the floor in the first half and ended up making 12-27 from three point range.
“I think our guys communicate well. At the end of the day you have to guard off the dribble. I thought for the most part we were together,” Fran McCaffery told the Big Ten Network after the victory.
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Rutgers was expected to make a run in the second half and they did, but not before Iowa opened up an even larger lead. After a Murray three pointer, the Hawkeyes pushed the lead to 18 points, 54-36, with 15:41 left in the game.
Then Iowa went cold and the Scarlet Knights heated up, going on a 12-0 run to cut the Hawkeye lead to five, 55-50. But, Sandfort answered that run with back to back three pointers and Iowa was back up by double figures.
Fran McCaffery went back to the start as the key to the victory at Rutgers and also how they handle the charges he knew were coming from the Scarlet Knights.
“I think the most important thing when you are in an environment like this on the road against a really good team is to get off to a good start, which we did. Then you are going to have to play through some adversity because there are going to be some runs.”
NEXT UP
With the victory, Iowa moved to 10-6 this season and 2-3 overall. The Hawkeyes will now have three straight home games coming up, beginning with hosting Michigan on Thursday evening against Michigan. The game tips off at 6 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN2.
