Kris Murray’s double-double leads Iowa to 83-67 victory over Seton Hall
By Pat Harty
When Kris Murray decided to return for his junior season on the Iowa basketball team, he probably envisioned games like the one that unfolded against Seton Hall on Wednesday.
In addition to his team winning 83-67 against a quality opponent on the road, the 6-foot-8 Kris Murray also showcased all his skills for NBA scouts while matching his career high with 29 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.
“He really showed no weaknesses ” said former Connecticut player Donny Marshall, who helped call the game for FS1.
Kris Murray is the twin of former Iowa All-America forward Keegan Murray, who entered the 2022 NBA draft as a sophomore and was selected fourth overall by the Sacramento Kings.
Kris Murray also tested the NBA draft process before deciding to return for another season.
Kris Murray knew that his role would expand dramatically without his brother on the team, and Wednesday’s victory over Seton Hall in the Gavitt Tipoff Games was a case in which Kris seized the moment in spectacular fashion.
Iowa (3-0) led by at least 10 points for much of the second half and whenever the Pirates made a run, Kris Murray and his cohorts had an answer.
The Pirates had cut the deficit to 50-45 when Kris Murray made a 3-point basket with 11:09 left to play. It was his third 3-point basket in the game, and it pushed his point total to 25 points with more than half of the second half still left to play.
Kris Murray scored in a variety of ways, from 3-point range, on penetration and on post-up moves.
His game is different than how his twin brother plays, but the results were similar on Wednesday as Kris Murray was clearly the best player on the court, as was the case with Keegan Murray in many games of the game that he played in last season.
Kris Murray was hardly a solo act, though, as junior guard Tony Perkins scored 18 points, five assists and three steals, while junior forward Patrick McCaffery finished with 11 points and five rebounds and senior forward Filip Rebraca had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds, to go along with four blocks.
Iowa also committed just eight turnovers, while Seton Hall had 16.
The 6-9 Rebraca has a double-double in scoring and rebounding in two of Iowa’s first three games.
“We know they’re very a physical team, but when you’re that physical and just with our offense we know we can get down hill and get fouled and we just took advantage of that,” Rebraca said on the Learfield post-game radio show.
Iowa made 28-of-33 free throws, while Seton Hall only attempted 13 free throws and made 11. That’s a difference of 17 points, and one of the biggest reasons Iowa prevailed.
Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery was pleased with how his team matched Seton Hall’s intensity.
“I thought we really competed,” Fran McCaffery said on the Learfield post-game radio show. “This is a team that really fights you. They attack you on defense. They attack you on offense. They attack you on the glass.
“If you’re not ready to match that physicality, you’re going to fall behind and stay behind. They jumped us. We regrouped and we started taking care of the glass a little bit better and we handled the ball. That’s a team that typically turns people over and we only had eight turnovers.”
Seton Hall dominated the glass early in the opening minutes of the game and led 10-2 lead when a timeout was called with 15:35 left in the first half.
But then Iowa responded with a 14-3 scoring run and took its first lead at 16-13 on a 3-point basket by Kris Murray.
Kris Murray scored Iowa’s first seven points of the game and he had 12 points by the 11-minute mark of the first half.
The scoring run grew to 19-3 when Patrick McCaffery made a 3-point basket to expand Iowa’s lead to 21-13 with 7:55 left in the first half.
Seton Hall head coach Shaheen Holloway called for a timeout after Patrick McCaffery’s trey and Holloway was clearly upset with his team’s performance at that point.
Kris Murray made a runner in the lane to give Iowa a 31-20 lead with less than 2 minutes remaining in the first half.
Tony Perkins then made a reverse layup to give Iowa a 34-20 lead with 28.1 second left in the first half.
However, Perkins was called for a technical foul apparently from having celebrated too much after making the basket.
Seton Hall was trailing 34-22 in the closing seconds of the first hall when Iowa forward Filip Rebraca blocked a layup that would have cut the deficit to 10 points at halftime.
Seton Hall only made 6-of-30 field-goal attempts in the first half and committed 10 turnovers.
The Pirates regrouped at halftime and then started the second half on a 6-0 scoring run.
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