Hawkeyes Comeback Falls Short, Minnesota Defeats Iowa

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The University of Iowa men’s basketball team fell to Minnesota, 72-67, on Tuesday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Hawkeyes move to 12-7 on the season and 3-5 in Big Ten play.

Both teams got off to a slow start offensively, as the teams combined to shoot 3-of-13 from the field in the first four minutes. Both teams would continue struggling from the offensive end the rest of the first half. The Hawkeyes trailed for all but 25 seconds in the first half as the Golden Gophers led 32-28 after 20 minutes of play.

Senior Payton Sandfort led the charge for Iowa in the first half with 10 points, while grabbing four rebounds. The Hawkeyes shot 13-of-28 (46.4 percent) from the field, but were 0-of-7 from deep. The Golden Gophers shot 12-of-31 (38.7 percent) from the field and 4-of-14 (28.6%) from beyond the arc. Iowa was outrebounded 20-13 in the first 20 minutes.

The offensive struggles would continue for Iowa in the second half as the team’s first three-pointer of the game came at the 12:40 mark of the second half to cut the Minnesota lead to 46-36. The Gophers led by double digits for the majority of the second half as Iowa was unable to cut into the lead.

The Hawkeyes, trailing 67-55 with three minutes remaining, went on a 12-3 run to cut the deficit to just three with 30 seconds remaining. Iowa was unable to pull the lead any closer the rest of the game as Minnesota converted from the charity stripe to protect their lead.

Iowa finished the game shooting 28-of-61(45.9 percent) from the field and 3-of-21 (14.3 percent) from three-point range. The Hawkeyes shot 8-of-12 (66.7 percent) from the free throw line. 

The Hawkeyes were led by the duo of Payton Sandfort and sophomore Owen Freeman, who each scored 21 points. Sandfort finished with a double-double, snagging 10 rebounds. Sophomore Seydou Traore rounded out Hawkeyes in double digits with 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting.

HEAR FROM HEAD COACH FRAN MCCAFFERY
"Seydou’s been really impressive in practice recently. Terrific practice yesterday. So he earned more minutes and he produced. He’s still learning, he made some mistakes. But he was aggressive and that’s what we need him to be.”

“We played pretty good defense early. We had some stops. We just were not scoring the ball. We started going to Owen a little bit more as the half progressed and he was really good. He was really the only thing we had going of any constituency in the first half offensively.”

GAME NOTES

• Minnesota held the Hawkeyes to a season-low 67 points in a 72-67 victory on Tuesday night inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
• The Gophers’ win snapped a six-game Iowa winning streak in the series. It was Minnesota’s first win in Iowa City since 2015.
• Iowa trailed by 13 points (67-54) with 4:08 remaining before closing the gap to within three points (70-67) with 30 seconds to play.
• Iowa had three players finish in double figures: Payton Sandfort 21, Owen Freeman 21, Seydou Traore 11
• Payton Sandfort finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the season (seventh of his career). He made 7-of-19 field goals in the game. 
• It was his team-leading eighth 20-point game of the season and the 26th game of his career.
• Freeman made 10-of-14 field goals en route to his 21 points. He also had eight rebounds.
• It was Freeman’s fourth 20-point game this season and sixth of his career.
• Sophomore Brock Harding had nine points and nine assists.
• Minnesota held Iowa to season-lows in points (67) and 3-point field goals (3).  
• The Hawkeyes did not make a 3-point field goal in the first half and the first make didn’t come until the 12:45 mark of the second half.
• Iowa entered the game averaging 10.7 3-pointers per game.
• Iowa lost despite having a higher field goal percentage (.459-.414). The Gophers made 17 free throws to Iowa’s eight in the game.

UP NEXT
Iowa returns to action Friday, hosting Penn State at 8 p.m. (CT) inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.