The Iowa men’s basketball team defeated Texas A&M-Commerce, 89-67, Monday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in its regular season opener. After getting outrebounded and turning the ball over seven times in the first half, the Hawkeyes regrouped after the break – shooting 47.4 percent from the floor and commanding a 23-17 lead on the glass over the final 20 minutes. 

“It wasn’t great,” Payton Sandfort said with a smile when asked what was said at halftime. “It was a lot of player-led. We knew we had to be better. In a lot of ways we were doing some good things. Just weren’t hitting shots, but then they started falling and we started rebounding. That’s somewhere we really got to be better. It starts with me. I got to be better. Once I started going, everyone else started going.”

“This is a connected group, they’re not selfish at all,” Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery said in his postgame press conference. “They’ll move it, share it. Even the shots that we missed, weren’t horrible shots.”

Iowa senior forward Payton Sandfort led all scorers with 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field, including 4-of-9 from three-point land. After notching the program’s first triple-double last season, he was three assists shy of the second, finishing with 11 boards and seven assists.

After taking home Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Year recognition, second-year center Owen Freeman picked up right where he left off with 15 points and nine rebounds.

Holding only a seven-point advantage out of the tunnel, Iowa retook the court with force. Dix blocked a layup on the opening possession before Freeman scored on the left block. The second-year big man notched double digits just minutes later after receiving a cross-court pass from Sandfort for a resounding dunk. 

Sandfort followed up that pass with another assist, this time to his younger brother Pryce for a triple  that put Iowa up 10. 

The Hawkeyes caught fire from there, forcing four consecutive turnovers on the press resulting in six points – highlighted by a slam from Morehead State transfer Drew Thelwell, who finished the contest with 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting. 

For Payton Sandfort, the defensive outburst took the weight off the Hawkeyes’ shoulders and changed the course of the game in favor of the home team. Beforehand, the Lions were doing what they wanted on offense, but they were soon put on their heels.

“I think it started with us,” he said. “People were a just little tense in that first game, and that really sparked the energy, got the crowd going, got a lot of our guys going, which led on the offensive end [to] balls moving and wide-open threes.”

As for Thelwell, who only played about nine minutes and scored four points in the team’s exhibition victory over Minnesota Duluth, McCaffery said the senior guard is hitting his stride with the Hawkeyes.

The head coach explained that at Morehead State, Thelwell headlined a slow-paced offense dictated by set plays and not Iowa’s free flowing concept scheme, but that this change wouldn’t be too much for Thelwell in his final season of collegiate eligibility.

“He’s very capable. It’s not like he can’t play that way,” McCaffery said. “I would argue that he’s better playing this way. It’s why we recruited him out of the transfer portal in the first place.”

The offensive onslaught continued. Trapped by two Lion defenders near the left block, Dix reached around their backs and found an open Pryce Sandfort in the corner for a three, extending Iowa’s lead to 20. 

Commanding the glass, Iowa notched 10 more rebounds in first 17 minutes of the second half than it did in the entire first. Payton Sandfort finished with an impressive spin-move layup that put Iowa up by 30 and made this one a laugher with more than three minutes to play – a far cry from the game’s opening half. 

A rocky opening 10 minutes saw the Hawkeyes with a three-point lead despite getting outrebounded, 14-9, and shooting only 37 percent from the floor. The Lions weren’t letting up any easy buckets as the Hawkeyes managed 3-of-7 layups, including an attempted Even Bruans dunk that was denied by Josh Taylor.

McCaffery said the Hawkeyes struggled to adjust to the Lions’ defensive scheme, which involved constant switches and increased physicality –as evidenced by Iowa’s 20 free throw attempts. His squad was playing too quick and forcing up shots too early in the shot clock.

“When you’re playing a team that’s physical, you can’t settle for contested jump shots,” McCaffery said. “You’ve got to drive the ball, you got to throw it ahead, you’ve got to attack in transition.”

Second-year guard Brock Harding was an early spark, dishing out two assists and notching a steal and layup on an inbounds play from the Lions. 

Texas A&M-Commerce took a one-point advantage with just over nine minutes in the first half after a Payton Sandfort turnover – one of seven the Hawkeyes had in the opening period. Iowa switched to a 2-3 zone defense to close out the first half, but didn’t see much improvement, as Texas A&M Commerce went on a 12-9 to make it a one possession game with just over a minute remaining. A pair of offensive rebounds from Payton Sandfort and Freeman gave the Hawkeyes four second-chance points on free throws to give Iowa a 42-35 advantage heading into the tunnel. 

Iowa shot 44 percent from the floor and 33 percent from beyond the arc in the first half as Payton Sandfort led the way with eight points, followed by Harding and Freeman with six apiece and a combined four steals. 

Injury news and notes

Pryce Sandfort went into the tunnel during the second half with an apparent shoulder injury but said the ailment was just a stinger and that he will be ready to go by Iowa’s next game.

Seydou Traore, a second-year transfer from Manhattan University did not play against the Lions due to leg injury. Donning a boot on his foot, the 6-foot-7 Traore watched from the sidelines in street clothes.

McCaffery said the big man had a “busted wheel” but was “optimistic” Traore would be back in action for Iowa’s upcoming contest against Southern University.

Up next 

The 1-0 Hawkeyes host Southern University on Thursday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.