The Iowa Hawkeyes (17-12, 9-9) raced to an early first half lead with excellent passing and clean shooting in a 90-81 game against the Penn State Nittany Lions (14-15, 8-10). Payton Sandfort notched the first triple-double in Iowa men’s basketball history - he tallied 10 points, 10 assists, and 5 boards before making a single field goal - while Josh Dix also had 20 points. Dix had a Keegan Murray-like start with 18 points on 7 shots before finishing 8/10.
It was a game of runs as the Hawks matched every move from Penn State after gaining a 17-point lead in just over 10 minutes of gameplay. The Nittany Lions quickly got it back to single digits as a Mike Rhoades technical foul was followed by foul quick Hawkeye fouls and six free throws. While a Dix three pointer pushed the lead back to 15 about ninety seconds later, it proved to be the high water mark for the rest of the game.
The second half saw Ace Baldwin take over with three quick layups cutting the Hawkeye lead to 1 with 2:40 elapsed. Yet he was dinged with a technical of his own which spurned Iowa’s own free-throw fueled 13-3 run to push the game back to double digits.
Sandfort’s only two three pointers proved to be big ones in the second half as each one stemmed Nittany Lion spurts and pushed the game to 8 points with 13:59 remaining and 11 with 4:36 remaining. He had 11 of Iowa’s final 13 points.
History made
In addition to Sandfort’s triple-double, Ben Krikke & Patrick McCaffery reached milestones of their own in otherwise underwhelming performances. Krikke had just 7 points on 1/5 shooting but reached 2000 points in the first half. McCaffery’s 5 point night was capped with his 1000th point on Iowa’s final point of the game.
Owen Freeman also set an Iowa freshman record with his 51st block in an 11 point, 8 rebound performance.
Putting this here: Watching Caitlin Clark do what she does really desensitizes one to the type of single-game achievement a triple-double is. Mike Hlas tallied 30 of them coming into tonight.
Forgettable night for Tony Perkins
Hopefully nightmares of Ace Baldwin don’t happen for Perkins as the otherwise clean point guard for Iowa struggled again with four turnovers after accumulating five in the first matchup against Penn State. Two first half fouls also sent him to the bench. He was able to cobble together 10 points - all in the second half - five boards, and five assists on the night but man...Baldwin was a thorn in his side.
Brock Harding was the beneficiary of Perkins’ time on the bench, as he played 17 minutes. He had 3 points and 4 assists, including a sensational left handed bullet to Freeman in the first half.
Rebounding still a sore spot
Penn State had 18 more shots than Iowa, as they rebounded 15 of their 45 misses (33%) and turned them into 20 second chance points. It wasn’t really any particular individual but an accumulation. Krikke returned to the poor performance he was mired in with just 2 on the night.
Iowa struggled with Penn State’s size down low as the Nittany Lions outscored Iowa 56-32 on points in the pain and held Iowa to 13/22 shooting on layups/dunks. Thankfully Iowa’s impressive free throw shooting at 32/37 (86.5%) was the main driver of success as the Hawks forced the issue with first half drives and strong cuts.
The overall game flow did keep Iowa out of their preferred offense, with just 13 points on the fast break and 47.2% shooting from the field, including 9/21 in the second half. That’s a losing number without 22/25 in the frame, including Payton Sandfort going a sterling 13/13.
The Hawkeyes came out with requisite urgency and, while the game got a little dicey a few times, they never allowed Penn State to climb the mountain. For a team that has been so up-and-down throughout the season, there is value in keeping the win comfortable at the end of the day. They face a Northwestern squad which sits at 3rd place in the conference before taking on the Terrapins in Maryland tomorrow night.
It sets up a big Saturday tilt at 4:30 on Big Ten Network. A win there might see Iowa sneak into brackets across the country.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25308991/Iowa_Penn_State_box.png "Iowa 90, Penn State 81: Payton Sandfort notches Iowa men’s first triple-double (1)")
