It was somewhat of a rollercoaster performance by the Iowa basketball team during Saturday night’s 95-88 victory over Utah.
Playing at a neutral site – though in front of a decidedly pro-Hawkeye crowd – at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Iowa started fast before floundering in the middle portion of play on either side of halftime.
Thankfully for the loyal fans in attendance, it was the finish that truly mattered.
After trailing by as many as 11 points early in the second half, the Hawkeyes outscored the Utes by 18 over the remainder of the game.
A Pryce Sandfort three-pointer with 9:51 to play gave Iowa a 71-69 lead, and Utah never pulled back in front.
With the win, Iowa improved to 9-3 with just one game left on its non-conference schedule. Meanwhile, Utah (8-3) will head into its inaugural Big 12 season coming off a loss.
Here’s a little more on how the Hawkeyes got it done:
(First) half good, half bad
To some surprise, it was the defensive end of the floor where the Iowa basketball team really stood out in the early going.
(Both the Hawkeyes and Utes entered the night averaging more than 86 points/game.)
Up 7-2 at the under-16 TV timeout and 16-8 following the under-12, Iowa had done an excellent job both contesting shots around the rim and limiting open looks for the likes of Utah leading scorer Gabe Madsen (19.8 points/game).
Things would unravel quickly, however.
Trading buckets eventually turned into a Utah run. And by late in the half some of Iowa’s best (few) defensive plays came thanks to walk-on Carter Kingsbury – who checked in at the 5:27 mark.
The Hawkeyes particularly struggled to contain Mason Madsen (twin brother to Gabe), who knocked down many of his game-high six three-pointers in the opening 20 minutes of action.
To make matters worse, the final note before intermission was especially disheartening.
Leading by two with the final seconds ticking away, Utah ran a simple pick-and-roll and found big man Lawson Lovering for two of his career-high 25 points on an uncontested dunk to take a 40-36 advantage into the locker room.
(Second) half bad, half (very) good
In many ways the second half was a mirror image of the first.
And that almost assuredly meant quite a bit of angst for Iowa fans in the early going.
Not only did Utah score another uncontested dunk to open the half, but it quickly jumped ahead 47-36 thanks to a 7-0 run that was assisted by a pair of questionable decisions with the ball by Iowa point guard Brock Harding.
Owen Freeman did his best to stymie the momentum by converting a couple of plays through contact at the rim (one on a breakaway dunk) – only to miss the subsequent free throw each time.
It wasn’t until the after the under-16 timeout that the tide really started to turn back in favor of the Hawkeyes.
A pair of buckets by Ladji Dembele (including a three-pointer) help to trim the deficit to just two. Shortly thereafter Iowa found itself in the bonus with more than 12 minutes left to play in the half.
More back-and-forth ensued with Iowa never able to pull even, until Payton Sandfort hit an acrobatic left-handed transition layup through contact to knot the score at 63-apiece.
Moments later, a fourth foul on Owen Freeman could’ve proved costly – as Fran McCaffery put his leading scorer on the bench with 10:30 remaining (where he’d stay for the rest of the game).
It just so happened that a couple of Freeman’s teammates had no intention of letting this game slip away.
Closing kick
Back-to-back threes by Harding and Pryce Sandfort helped the Hawks to regain and then re-regain the lead – and the boys in Black & Gold would never look back.
75-all would be the final tie of the contest, as Iowa mixed in a bit of zone defense after the under-eight timeout to give the Utes a different look.
From there, Iowa was brought home by some incredible individual efforts from a few of its best players.
On consecutive possessions Payton Sandfort drove to the hoop for clever finishes.
As if taking note, Josh Dix followed with an impressive finish of his own – faking as though he intended to dribble baseline toward the corner before reversing direction (a la Michael Jordan against the New York Knicks) for a bucket.
(Minus the dunk over a future Hall of Famer, of course.)
Shortly thereafter, two Harding free throws, a mid-range jumper from Dix and a Dix-to-Harding drive-and-kick three-pointer had helped to extend the Iowa advantage to 88-80.
All of this took place around the Hawkeye defense forcing a couple of crucial stops, and the decisive 11-2 run was ultimately punctuated with 2:15 to go on a left-handed finish through contact by Dix off a feed from Harding – returning the favor from their sequence moments prior.
Utah got as close as six points as the ‘foul game’ began, but Drew Thelwell hit 5/6 from the charity stripe to salt things away for Fran McCaffery & Co.
What it means
After several narrow misses in recent weeks (Utah State, Michigan, Iowa State), Saturday night’s win was a big moment for this year’s Iowa basketball team.
Utah (8-3) may not be a world-beater, but the Utes profile to be good enough to give the Hawkeyes at least a respectable marker on their non-conference resume come Selection Sunday. That’s especially true when you consider this game took place at a neutral venue – and will be calculated as such when it comes to the NET rankings.
It also felt important for Payton Sandfort, who led Iowa in both scoring (24) and rebounding (eight) against the Utes.
Sandfort had been in a bit of a shooting slump for the past month-or-so prior to this week.
Couple tonight with his efficient outing in a blowout of New Orleans last Sunday and the senior has now shot 13/22 from the field, 5/9 from three-point range and 8/8 from the foul line over his past two outings.
That’s the type of production Iowa is going to need from its star senior if it hopes to finish in the upper half of the Big Ten and punch its ticket to the Big Dance.
Next up: The Hawkeyes conclude their non-conference schedule in nine days (12/30) when New Hampshire visits Carver-Hawkeye Arena just ahead of the New Year.
