By Dallas Jones

IOWA CITY, IOWA – A chance to keeping moving in the right direction for Hawkeye hoops as they hosted UMBC, their last game before a holiday break.

After a slow start, the Hawkeyes turned the game around to win 103-81, a quick summary and postgame here below.

1st half: The game did not start out strong for the Hawkeyes. They made just six of their first 21 shots from the field over eight minutes into the game.

Iowa came in as heavy favorites, but halfway through the first half they found themselves holding a very slim lead.

The biggest struggle early came from the three point line.  After 14 minutes of play, the Hawkeyes were just 2/12 (16.7%) from three. At the same time, UMBC was 6/10 and had the game tied at 29.

The Hawkeyes responded to adversity though as they fired off a 12-2 run in a three minutes span, securing their first double digit lead of the game.

Riding that momentum all the way into the half, the Hawkeyes led 50-36. Iowa scored 22 points in the first 12:15 in the game, then put up 28 (!!) in the last 7:45. Whatever speech Fran used, he needs to make sure he writes it down.

2nd half:  Momentum from the end of the second half carried over to the second half, as the Hawkeyes came out forcing missed shots and turnovers. By the twelve minute mark in the second half, the Hawkeyes held a 28 point lead and did not look back

Brock Harding had nine second half assists alone en route to his first career double double with ten points to go along with twelve total assists.

Iowa now heads to the holiday break 7-5 overall and 0-2 in the Big Ten.

Tony Perkins and Payton Sandfort both put together some of their best performances of the year.

Perkins led all scores with 23 points and also added six assists and seven rebounds.

Sandfort had a double double of his own with 18 points and ten rebounds to go with six assists. See full box score for more.

After the game, Fran McCaffery and a couple players met with media to talk about the win and coming break, check it out here: