The Iowa Hawkeyes took a different route to the winner’s column in their third straight Big Ten triumph, but Iowa’s 86-77 win over Minnesota left Hawkeye fans feeling similarly great about the brand of basketball Iowa is suddenly playing.
Unlike against Rutgers and Nebraska where Iowa jumped out to large early leads, it was Minnesota who built the initial advantage in this one.
The Golden Gophers pounced on the Hawkeyes early, racing out to a 14-3 lead in the game’s first four minutes. But, thanks to a quick seven points from junior forward Payton Sandfort and buckets from freshman forward Owen Freeman, sophomore guard Josh Dix and graduate forward Ben Krikke, Iowa pulled back even at 16 apiece in a hurry.
From there, Iowa’s perimeter defense helped turn the tide and set the tone for what would happen the rest of the way. Minnesota shot just 1-of-14 from 3-point range in the first half as the Hawkeyes were led by Krikke’s 12 first half points. Iowa led Minnesota 39-32 at the break.
Though Minnesota attempted to make a late run at Iowa, the Gophers couldn’t ever get closer than five points at 67-62 with 4:49 remaining.
After connecting on five made 3-pointers in Iowa’s win over Nebraska, Dix had another terrific game against the Gophers. He finished with 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting.
Krikke had a team-high 25 points for the Hawkeyes, while senior guard Tony Perkins added 13 points and Freeman scored 12 to round out Iowa’s double-figure scorers.
Iowa got its record back to .500 in Big Ten play and now readies for a Saturday matinee against No. 2 Purdue from inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena at 1 p.m. CT on FS1.
With the win, Iowa head men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery made Hawkeye history. It was his 272nd win as the Hawkeyes’ head coach, surpassing the great Tom Davis to become Iowa’s all-time winningest men’s basketball coach in school history.
Here’s how Hawkeye social media took in the historically significant Iowa W.