Hawkeyes Defeat Seton Hall, 85-72

SAN DIEGO – The University of Iowa men’s basketball team defeated the Seton Hall Pirates, 85-72, on Friday evening in the last game of the Rady Children’s Invitational. The Hawkeyes move to 4-2 on the season after defeating the Pirates for the second straight season.

Ben Krikke and Tony Perkins combined to score Iowa’s first 15 points. Seven different Hawkeyes scored in the first half to give Iowa an 11-point advantage at halftime, 44-33. Iowa shot 18-30 (60%) from the field in the first half. 

Payton Sandfort scored 22 points to be the game’s leading scorer. Sandfort scored 14 points in the second half. The junior from Waukee, Iowa, grabbed a team high nine rebounds and is now averaging a team best 8.4 rebounds per game.

Senior Patrick McCaffery scored eight of his 10 points in the second half while shooting 3-of-4 from the field in the second half. McCaffery came down with the second most rebounds on the team, grabbing six boards.

Ben Krikke netted 19 points on an efficient 8-of-10 performance. Krikke has scored in double figures in every game this season. Tony Perkins rounded out the Hawkeyes with double digits adding 14 points. Perkins also pulled in five rebounds and dished out five assists.

Iowa was able to withstand multiple Seton Hall runs en route to their fourth victory of the season. The Hawkeyes shot 13-of-25 (52%) in the second half and knocked down 11-of-14 (79%) free throws to help seal the victory.

HEAR FROM HEAD COACH FRAN MCCAFFERY

“We knew we had to get off to a really good start today. Based on the fact, we rebounded really well yesterday, but we didn’t execute offensively at all. Today our offense was really, really clicking and that’s what we needed.”

“I think the important thing was [the upperclassmen] all respond. As leaders, as mature guys that know and understand and have been through it, and also set the tone for the younger guys that came in off the bench. They did exactly that. Very professional approach by those guys.”

“We played two really good teams. We knew that before we got on the plane. We played really well today. We did some good things yesterday and we did some things that had to be corrected and we got them corrected. That’s exactly what we hoped to accomplish when we came out here.”

HAWKEYE NOTABLES

• Iowa improves to 3-1 all-time against Seton Hall, including posting wins in back-to-back years.
• The win is head coach Fran McCaffery’s 265th as Iowa’s head coach, seven wins shy of becoming the winningest coach in school history.
• Junior Payton Sandfort scored a season-high 22 points and went 7-of-14 from the field, including four 3-pointers.  He also had a team-high nine rebounds.
  • He was named to the Rady Children’s Invitational All-Tournament team.
  • It is his second 20-point game of the season and the ninth of his career.
  • It is Sandfort’s second game this season with four or more 3-pointers and the eighth such game of his career.
• Graduate Ben Krikke scored 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting, making a season-high 80 percent of his attempts.  He also tied for the team lead with five assists.
  • He has been in double figures in every game this season.
  • Krikke has shot at least 60 percent from the field in four games.
• The Hawkeyes had at least four players reach double figures for the fifth time in six games – Sandfort, Krikke, Tony Perkins (14), Patrick McCaffery (10).
• Iowa shot a season-high 56.4 percent from the floor, making 31-of-55 field goals.
  • It is the fourth time this season the team has shot at least 50 percent.
• Iowa finished with 20 assists on its 31 field goals.  It’s fourth game with at least 20 assists.
• Iowa shot 60 percent from the field in the first half, making 18-of-30 field goals.  It is the team’s best shooting first half of the season and second-best overall shooting half (61.8 – second half vs. North Dakota).
  • Krikke and Perkins scored 17 of Iowa’s first 22 points in the game… Iowa led 15-4 over first five minutes and by as many as 18 (36-18) in the first half.
• The Hawkeyes limited Seton Hall to 27.5 percent (11-of-40) in the first half – the lowest shooting half of the season.  The Pirates missed 11 straight shots for a 6 ½ minute stretch in the opening 20 minutes.
  • Seton Hall had a 36.0 field goal percentage this season, the second lowest by an opponent.

UP NEXT
Iowa returns to action Wednesday, hosting North Florida at 8 p.m. (CT) on Mediacom Court inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.  The game will be televised on BTN.