By Hawk Fanatic

IOWA CITY, Iowa – A short-handed Iowa men’s basketball team jumped all over Northwestern, but then had to rely on junior guard Josh Dix making by far the biggest shot of his Hawkeye career to escape with a win.

Dix made a 3-point basket right before time expired to lift Iowa to an 80-79 victory over Northwestern in the Big Ten opener on Tuesday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Iowa only had 0.8 seconds to attempt a shot, and having Dix attempt a turnaround three from well beyond the top of the key wasn’t ideal, but the 6-foot-5 Council Bluffs native caught the inbound pass and then turned and launched from about 26 feet, touching nothing but net.

With so little time remaining, it came down to a player making a spectacular shot and Dix rose to the challenge in spectacular fashion.

“It’s all about me, but when my guy makes a 26-footer, it’s all about him,” Fran McCaffery said of devising the last-second shot on the Peacock post-game interview.

Iowa played without sophomore forward Seydou Traore due to an an ankle injury, and without freshman forward Cooper Koch due to an undisclosed injury.

Early on, it didn’t matter as the Hawkeyes built a 17-point lead in the first half and led by double figures until about midway through the second half when the Wildcats began chipping away at the deficit, eventually taking the lead.

Dix led four Iowa players in double figures with 22 points.

Senior forward Payton Sandfort finished with 20 points and a team-high seven rebounds.

Iowa improved to 7-1 and will play at Michigan on Saturday in the second of its early Big Ten slate.

Tuesday’s win was also the first December conference win for every player on the team as Iowa had been 0-8 in December conference games since 2021.

Payton Sandfort told the media on Monday that he was determined to end Iowa’s December conference woes in his final season as a Hawkeye, and the Waukee native would go to play a big role in making that happen.

Iowa led 45-34 at halftime as Dix scored 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field in the first half.

The Hawkeyes shot a blistering 65.4 percent from the field in the first half, making 17-of-26 field-goal attempts, including 6-of-11 shots from 3-point range, and led by as many as 17 points in the first half.

Northwestern trimmed the deficit to 11 in the final four minutes of the first half, but never led in the half.

The Wildcats led by six points in the final minutes, but Iowa made just enough plays to stay within striking distance, and that set the stage for Dix to make his biggest shot as a Hawkeye.