By Dallas Jones

IOWA CITY, IOWA – Nights like tonight are why people not only love college basketball, but specifically conference play. In true Big Ten fashion, we got a classic to kickoff conference play for the Iowa Hawkeyes as Josh Dix knocked down a 35-foot three pointer at the buzzer to give Iowa the 80-79 win.

When the Hawks needed him most, whew pic.twitter.com/Kk9Pnikshu https://t.co/p16osEHyZm

— Dallas Jones (@DallasJonesy) December 4, 2024

Iowa had won 12 of the last 14 and 17 of the last 21 meetings over Northwestern, including nine straight from 2018-23 before. The Hawkeyes came into the game with a balanced attack, having at least one player (five different players) score 20 or more points in six of the team’s seven games. Here is how it happened.

1st half: The Hawkeyes started conference play the right way as they opened the game on a 13-3 run through the first 6:30 of the game. Josh Dix, Payton Sandfort, and even Owen Freeman, all knocked down a shot from behind the arc to help the quick start.

Iowa continued this momentum to the under eight minute timeout where they led 24-15. At that point, Iowa was shooting 9-15 (60%) from the field and 4-6 (66.7%) from deep. Josh Dix, who has been battling an injury, came out firing with ten quick points in his first eleven minutes on the floor.

Dix and company somehow still sped up on the offensive end as they sparked a 12-2 run soon after that timeout, extending the lead to 17 at one point. Northwestern ended the half a perfect 6-6 from the field, but that was not enough to keep up with the scorching hot Hawkeyes.

2nd half: Iowa and Northwestern traded baskets in the second half until the under 16 timeout with eight a piece. After a great first half from deep, the Hawkeyes missed their first three attempts after the break.

Chris Collins must have given a great timeout speech as Northwestern on an 8-0 run after that break and cut the lead to five. It was a completely different Hawkeye team that came out in the second half. with 11:57 to play, they were 4-10 from the field in the second half and had six turnovers, which was triple the amount of assists they had so far in the second half.

At the 11:30 mark in the second half, Northwestern finally took their first lead of the game 55-54. With 7:43 left to play the Hawkeyes trailed 63-61. As a timeout was called, it seemed like the next few minutes would define the Hawkeye basketball team going forward.

17 point lead at home in your conference opener somehow completely wiped and many times in recent years, we have seen the Hawkeyes falling on the wrong side of those matchups. Northwestern’s second half defensive were clearly the differance. After Iowa shot over 65% in the first half they are just 8/24 (33%) here in the second half.

The closing moments of this game did not look good for the Hawkeyes. In a second half full of turnovers and missed free throws, they found themselves with the ball, down two and less than 22 seconds left. After a broken play, Iowa’s Payton Sandfort called a timeout just before the Hawkeyes hoisted a tough shot and left just .8 seconds on the clock. That was win the Hawkeyes prayers were answered and Josh Dix knocked down a fading three at the horn.

A huge moment for Dix and a great start to Big Ten play for Iowa. Hear what Dix and others had to say postgame here: