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Hawkeyes pick up huge road victory

On3 imageby:Tom Kakert•about 12 hours•

HawkeyeReport

Josh Dix (9)
Josh Dix scored 26 points in the win for Iowa. (Photo: USA Today.)

A true road win had evaded the Iowa basketball team all season long. The Hawkeyes came into Wednesday night 0-5 in road games. They left Rutgers now 1-5 in road games after rallying in the second half to knock off the Scarlet Knights 84-73.

Iowa was led in scoring by Josh Dix, who had 26 points and pulled down 4 rebounds. Payton Sandfort finished with 20 points, including a dagger three in the final minutes, and Brock Harding’s return to the starting lineup was a successful one, finishing with 13 points, 7 assists, and 4 rebounds.

With the win, Iowa moves to 14-10 on the season and 5-8 in conference play. Next up for the Hawkeyes is a Sunday game at Maryland with the tip set for 4 pm on FS1.

The game started with the Scarlet Knights building an early lead. A turnaround jumper from Jeremiah Williams and a putback by Dylan Harper gave them a 4-0 lead. It grew to 10-2 when Williams made a driving layup.

That’s when Iowa started to heat up a bit. The Hawkeyes scored the next five points with Payton Sandfort hitting his first triple of the game. Rutgers then answered back with their own five point spree with Zach Martini hitting a three to make it 15-7 with 12:56 left in the first half.

The two teams continued to trade buckets before Brock Harding drove for a score to make it 17-13 Scarlet Knights. Ace Bailey and Payton Sandfort traded triples and that started a scoring surge from the Iowa senior. He ended up scoring eight of Iowa’s next ten points with his brother Pryce mixing in a pair of free throws to give Iowa a 23-20 edge with 9:35 left in the first.

Then it was Tyson Acuff, who came off the Rutgers bench, dropped in three straight three pointers for his own 9-0 run and a 31-25 edge for the Scarlet Knights.

Iowa was keeping in touch after a Josh Dix jumper to make it 34-29 before the Scarlet Knights created some distance after a step back three from Zach Martini to push the lead to 42-31 before Harding scored on a drive to make it 42-33 at the break.

At the start of the second half, the Hawkeyes quickly chipped away at the Scarlet Knight lead. Ladji Dembele, who scored 9 points, finished off an old fashion three point play to make it 42-37.

But, Rutgers started to come out of their halftime slumber piling up fouls on the Hawkeyes and building a nine point lead at 50-41 after Dylan Harper made a pair of free throws.

Then the tide really started to turn for Iowa in this game. After missing 14 straight three pointers, Brock Harding drilled one it was 50-46. Acuff hit another three and the lead was now back up to seven.

That’s when Josh Dix went to work. He scored the next ten points of the game in a variety of ways, a drive, a pair of three’s, and a jumper and Iowa was up 56-53 in the game.

From there the two teams traded buckets, basically staying as a one possession game until Harding hit a three to make it 67-62. But, Rutgers quickly answered with a three of their own and the bucket trading continued. Dix hit a tough banked in jumper to put Iowa up four and then after Harper cut the lead back to a pair, Payton Sandfort delivered a dagger three to put Iowa up 76-71. His brother, Pryce really put the finishing touches on the game with an aggressive driving layup to answer a score from Ace Bailey. Harding put the finishing touches on this one with a layup and an 84-73 victory.

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