The Iowa men’s basketball team topped Minnesota with an 86-77 win at Williams Arena in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Monday night.
Head coach Fran McCaffery notched his 272nd win as Iowa head coach, passing Tom Davis for the most wins in program history.
“It means a lot,” an emotional McCaffery said during his postgame interview on Big Ten Network. “To be compared to Tom Davis … I came here 14 years ago, it’s unbelievable.”
Iowa second-year guard Josh Dix started in place of senior forward Patrick McCaffery, who sat out due to a sprained ankle suffered on Jan. 12 against Nebraska. He would make the most of his opportunity, scoring a career-high 21 points and five assists.
Hawkeye teammate Ben Krikke put up 25 points while Tony Perkins followed up with 13 points. The starting five combined for 80 of Iowa’s 86 points.
First-year big man Owen Freeman came up with a steal just five seconds into the game, leading to Perkins getting fouled at the cup and knocking in one of two free throws. This didn’t phase Minnesota as they responded with a 10-0 run over a three-minute span that consisted of three Hawkeye turnovers.
The Hawkeyes regained their poise after the timeout, topping the Golden Gophers’ early run with a 17-4 stretch of their own over a six-minute frame to take a 20-18 lead midway through the first half.
Defense became the catalyst for Iowa as it held Minnesota scoreless for over six minutes as they continued to extend the lead. The script was quickly flipped as the Golden Gophers scored on three straight possessions while holding the Hawkeyes scoreless for 2:18 to cut the lead down to 30-28.
Dix led the charge for Iowa down the stretch of the first half, scoring five of the Hawkeyes’ nine points over the last three minutes to head into halftime with a 39-32 lead.
Minnesota had trouble containing the highly explosive Iowa offense despite its lack of outside shooting and free throw attempts. Through the first 20 minutes, the Hawkeyes shot 1-of-6 from three and 4-of-5 from the charity stripe, but the 16-of-29 shooting inside the arc was just enough to get by.
Iowa picked up where it left off to start the second half with its first three baskets coming within 20 feet of the rim. Minnesota responded with seven points of its own to cut the lead down to five early.
Both teams continued to go basket-for-basket until the Hawkeye defense rose once again to the occasion, holding the Golden Gophers scoreless over a four-minute period while the offense started to heat up.
Krikke converted two shots at the rim – one being an and-one – while teammate Brock Harding sent his defender to the floor with a spin-move layup to push the Iowa lead to its largest of the night, 59-47.
Minnesota refused to let up, firing back with a 7-0 run of itx own to bring the score back to within five. But once again, it was Dix who scored on consecutive possessions as Iowa retained a double-digit lead with six minutes to go in the game.
For every Golden Gopher bucket, the Hawkeyes responded with one of their own. Krikke hit Perkins with a bullet pass on the backdoor cut for the and-one layup to keep the game within arms reach. Perkins continued to heat up with two more shots at the rim as Iowa cruised to victory – its first true road game triumph this season (Iowa picked up a win against Seton Hall as a road team, but the contest was played at a neutral site).
Up Next
Iowa will host No. 2 Purdue at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Saturday. Led by Player of the Year candidate Zach Edey, the Boilermakers are first in point differential, first in field goal and three-point percentage, first in rebounding differential, second in points per game, and second in rebounds in the Big Ten.
