Hawkeyes Put Away Penn St.
Payton Sandfort had just grabbed history and while he celebrated, he didn’t know the significance of his 10th rebound of the game.
Sandfort had 26 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists in Iowa’s 90-81 win over Penn State on Tuesday night, becoming the first player in program history to get a triple-double, a fact that surprised a lot of people given the big names that have played for the Hawkeyes over the years.
“B.J. Armstrong never had one?” Penn State coach Mike Rhoades said.
Nope.
“Wow, that’s great,” Rhoades said. “Good for him. Congratulations. Wish he didn’t do it against us.”
“I was shocked,” said Iowa coach Fran McCaffery, who was informed by Hawkeye Radio Network play-by-play voice Gary Dolphin, who works from near the Hawkeyes’ bench. “You think about the great ones who have played here, the fact that it was the first one, I think that probably surprised everyone in this room.”
“That’s crazy that no other Hawkeye has done it,” Sandfort said.
Then he remembered that over on the women’s side, there is a Hawkeye who has done it 16 times over the last four seasons.
“I mean, I see Caitlin (Clark) do it every day,” Sandfort said, laughing.
The Hawkeyes (17-12 overall, 9-9 Big Ten) were getting ready to finish off the Nittany Lions (14-15, 8-10) when one of Iowa’s assistant coaches told Sandfort to go get his 10th rebound in case Penn State’s Ace Baldwin Jr., missed one of his two free throws with 21 seconds left.
“I thought I was closer to a double-double,” said Sandfort. “I told one of our coaches I was going to get 10 rebounds before the game. And then he’s like, ‘Hey, one more rebound.’ I’m like, ‘All right, all right, I got you.’
“He’s like, ‘No, get one more rebound.’”
Sandfort wasn’t sure Baldwin, an 83.6 percent free-throw shooter, would miss.
“I mean, he's like a 90% free-throw shooter and you know, we've really struggled lately getting free throw rebounds,” Sandfort said. “So I was just doing everything I could to make sure we got the ball and finish out the game.”
Sandfort considered the significance of what he had done.
“I mean, it's pretty special,” he said. “You know, growing up, watching so many great players and playing with so many great players. J-Bo (Jordan Bohannon) and Keegan and Kris (Murray). Watching Luka (Garza) and (Joe Wieskamp), all those guys. To be the first one is a pretty special feeling. But honestly, it means nothing if we can't get these last two wins and do something as a team. You know, that's kind of where your legacy is left.”
The Hawkeyes still have NCAA tournament hopes with two regular-season games and the Big Ten Tournament remaining, so there was an intensity in how they had played in this game, given the situation they had created for themselves this season.
“We talk about urgency all of the time,” said Patrick McCaffery, whose two free throws after Sandfort’s rebound gave him 1,000 career points. “It’s a pretty big word we use, and we don’t always have it, to be quite honest.”
But Iowa was crisp from the beginning. The Hawkeyes had assists on their first 14 field goals, leading by as much as 17 points in the first half before leading 47-39 at halftime.
“They had a great urgency in their game,” Rhoades said.
Sandfort had eight of his assists in the first half, five on baskets by Josh Dix, who had 18 points in the half and 20 for the game.
“The assists, that was just Josh Dix,” Sandfort said, smiling. “That was easy.”
“I knew he had eight assists at halftime, because Josh Dix made every shot,” Patrick McCaffery quipped. “One of the managers came up to me and is like, ‘Payton’s on trip-dub watch.’”
Penn State, though, made a run at the Hawkeyes early in the second half. Baldwin, scoreless in the first half, had eight of the Nittany Lions’ first 10 points as they cut Iowa’s lead to 51-49 with 17:20 to play. But Baldwin was called for a technical foul at that point, and Sandfort hit two free throws, followed by a Tony Perkins basket inside, and the lead was back to six points.
Sandfort had a weird scoring line in the box score — he was 3-of-11 from the field, but 18-of-19 in free throws.
“I don’t think I’ve ever shot 19 free throws before,” he said.
Iowa also got 11 points from Owen Freeman and 10 from Perkins.
Qudus Wahab led Penn State with 18 points.
NOTES: Fran McCaffery said after the game that guard Dasonte Bowen will undergo knee surgery in the coming days, ending his season. Bowen has played in 25 games this season, starting eight, but hasn’t played since the February 14 games at Maryland. “It’s been lingering,” McCaffery said. “He’s a tough kid. He’s been trying to play through it. It just got to the point where it was time.” … Iowa forward Ben Krikke picked up his 2,000th career point. Krikke scored 1,596 points in four seasons at Valparaiso before transferring to play for the Hawkeyes.