Only two minutes into the contest, Iowa’s Owen Freeman picked up his second foul and sat for the remainder of the half. Michigan basketball jumped out to a 20-4 lead, until the Hawkeyes charged back. They cut the deficit to three going into the locker room. In the second half, Iowa took its first lead. Michigan responded by gaining a double-digit lead before the Hawkeyes came roaring back to tie it with 30 seconds left.
Roddy Gayle had an opening and drove to the bucket where he tried to lay it up, but Iowa committed a goaltending, giving the Wolverines the edge by two with four seconds to go. Iowa had one last chance, but their 3-point attempt was well defended by Nimari Burnett and failed, giving Michigan basketball its first 2-0 start in the Big Ten since 2020.
Here’s three of the takeaways from the scrappy win.
In front of a packed crowd at the Crisler Center the Wolverines decisively ruled the paint. Heck the last two points came from there even though the ball technically didn’t go in the basket. Iowa’s defense was at the mercy of Gayle, Tre Donaldson, Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin. All of whom found lanes to the hoop for most of Michigan’s points.
The Hawkeyes kept it within range because of their sharpshooting from deep. They nailed nine triples, seven of them coming from the Sandfort brothers. Josh Dix, who won the Northwestern game with a buzzer-beater had 16 points.
