Iowa men fall to Minnesota 72-67 for third straight loss
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa men’s basketball team suffered its third straight loss on Tuesday, falling to last-place Minnesota 72-67 in what might be the lowest point in this up-and-down season so far.
Iowa fell behind 21-10 and trailed almost from start to finish before a sparse crowd at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
The Hawkeyes rallied late in the second half, pulling to within three points, but couldn’t finish the job as Minnesota center Fred Mitchell made two free throws with 10 seconds left to play to secure his team’s second straight win in conference play.
Mitchell entered Tuesday’s game having made just 4-of-11 free throws this season.
“It was a tough stretch,” said Iowa senior forward Payton Sandfort. “There is no excuse for the way we started. I take responsibility. I kind of forced a couple things early.
“I can’t do that. I’ve got to be more poised and a better leader.”
Payton Sandfort and sophomore center Owen Freeman both led Iowa in scoring with 21 points, but Sandfort only made 1-of-8 shots from 3-point range, while Iowa was just 3-of-21 overall from three.
Iowa relies heavily on 3-point shooting, so to not have that part of the offense working was too much to overcome.
When asked about his team’s struggles from 3-point range, Payton Sandfort pointed to the officiating while also praising Minnesota’s defense.
“I got fouled probably four or five times and I’m pretty upset about that,” he said. “But outside of that, they didn’t give us many looks. That’s just the way it goes. Sometimes, you have nights like that.”
Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery also seemed less than pleased with how the game was officiated, but he was careful not to cross the line with his post-game comments.
“There are some things that I would like to say with regard to that question,” Fran McCaffery said when asked why the offense struggled. “But unless you’re ready to star a Go Fund Me, I will refrain.
“I do think we quick shot the ball again when we got behind. We were forcing some threes there.”
Iowa junior guard Josh Dix only scored three points on 1-of-5 shooting from the field. The Council Bluffs native entered Tuesday’s game as Iowa’s third leading scorer with a 14.8 per-game average.
When asked what caused Dix to struggle on offense, Fran McCaffery again was careful with his comments.
“Didn’t I answer that question already,” he said. “I thought I did.”
Iowa was coming off back-to-back losses to USC and UCLA this past week in Los Angeles by scores of 99-89 and 94-70, respectively.
The hope was that playing at home would help to energize the Iowa players, but it just didn’t happen as Iowa struggled on both ends of the floor.
Graduate guard Drew Thelwell had arguably his worst game as a Hawkeye as he only made 1-of-7 field-goal attempts.
Starting point guard Brock Harding also struggled until the very end when he helped to spark the late rally.
“Brock was really good at the end'” Fran McCaffery said. “They’re great kids, both of them and they wanted to be aggressive and they wanted to attack and make plays.
“But we had some poor decisions there and those two guys usually aren’t guys that make poor decisions.”
The few fans that did brave the frigid weather and the 8 p.m. tip-off on a Tuesday had little to cheer about in the first half as Iowa trailed by as many as 11 points (21-10) in the half.
Payton Sandfort made two layups late in the first half, trimming the deficit to 30-28, but then Dawson Garcia made a basket right before time expired to give Minnesota a 32-28 halftime lead.
Garcia would go on to finish with 20 points and six rebounds, while Minnesota guard Femi Odukale scored 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
There was a scary moment late in the second half when an Iowa cheerleader was injured was while performing a tumbling routine during a timeout.
The arena fell eerily silent as medical personnel treated the injured cheerleader, who was taken off the court on a stretcher.
The cheerleader gave a thumbs up as he was taken off the court, much to the relief of the Iowa fans.
Fran McCaffery started his post-game press conference by making a statement about the injury.
“We’re going to talk in a few minutes here about a hard fought game, but I just want to say that sometimes things are a little more important,” Fran McCaffery said. “Our thoughts and prayers to the young guy who comes to support our players and our coaches.
“Obviously, he suffered a serious injury and we’re all thinking about him.”
Iowa, which fell to 12-7 overall and 3-5 in Big Ten play, will return to action on Friday when it faces Penn State at 8 p.m. at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
“Teams go through these funks in the year, but the only thing we can do is stay together,” Payton Sandfort said. “I believe in everybody in that room. I believe in the coaching staff and myself. There’s a lot of basketball left, a lot of opportunities.
“So, we’ve just got to stay together.”
There was some doubt about whether Payton Sandfort would play in Tuesday’s game after he was injured in the first half against UCLA this past Friday.
The 6-foot-7 Waukee native would go on to play just under 37 minutes in Tuesday’s game.
Afterwards, Payton Sandfort looked exhausted and devastated as he met with the media.
“I know it’s going to feel good when we figure it out,” Payton Sandfort said. “But we can’t quit. We’ve got to stay together.”