The Iowa men’s basketball team escaped with a 68-56 victory over Minnesota on Sunday in Minneapolis. 

Entering the matchup, Iowa was a heavy favorite over the Gophers. Minnesota is just 1-12 in the conference this season after the afternoon’s loss, while the Hawkeyes improved to 8-6 in Big Ten play.

The Hawkeyes never trailed in the contest, but at the half, they maintained a slim 32-29 lead over the Gophers. An 18-point second half from Iowa junior forward Kris Murray helped the visitors to the double-digit win.

Despite the triumph, the Hawkeyes lost the battle in terms of shooting percentage. They allowed the Gophers to convert 50 percent of their field goals while knocking down 38 percent of their own looks. However, Iowa outrebounded Minnesota, 44-33, and 17-2 on the offensive glass. 

The Hawkeyes hoisted 26 more shots than the Gophers. 

“You gotta go back and get some you know if your offense is sputtering a little bit because we didn’t make threes for the longest time,” Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery said. “Made a couple [3-pointers] late Kris and Connor [McCaffery] made two big ones late, that was huge. So you got to establish you can go back and get it.”

Murray steps up

Murray had a rough 4-of-15 shooting performance in the first half, but he dominated in the second stanza, converting 8 of 12 field goals in the final 20 minutes to finish with 28 points. He grabbed 14 rebounds on the afternoon.

“I was really proud of him,” Fran said of Murray. “You know, you miss 10 shots, which he normally doesn’t do in the first half, and the ball was spinning out on him, you know, alley-oops, offensive rebound put-backs, isolation layup at the end of the half, those shots normally go in. So for him to come back and finish it off with  28 [points] and 14 [rebounds] is really impressive to me. It says a lot about him.”

The 6-foot-8 swingman added two blocks and three steals in his stat sheet-stuffing afternoon.

Iowa dominates turnover battle

Once again, the Iowa press gave its opponent fits. In the Hawkeyes’ last contest, a road loss at No. 1 Purdue, they forced 17 turnovers from the Boilermakers.

The Hawkeyes followed up last Thursday’s defensive performance by forcing 14 turnovers from the Gophers.

“We got some length and I think that helps, especially in the press,” Fran said. “We’re an aggressive team that way … We didn’t shoot it well in the first half. So I think, you know, the aggressiveness defensively was going to be critical.”

Iowa turned the ball over just four times, creating a + 10 turnover margin between the two teams. The Hawkeyes scored nine points off turnovers to Minnesota’s zero.

Up next

The Hawkeyes host Ohio State on Feb. 16, at Carver-Hawkeye Arena at 8 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.

The contest will be Iowa’s second matchup with the Buckeyes this season. The Hawkeyes lost, 93-77, on Jan. 21 in Columbus.