Game Story: Iowa Basketball Tops Northwestern

Hawkeyes Advance at B1G Tournament Thursday with Lopsided Win

Iowa’s Connor McCaffery (30) and Ahron Ulis (4) celebrate McCaffery's three-pointer against Northwestern's during the first half of a Big Ten Tournament game on March 10, 2022 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)

INDIANAPOLIS — Payton Sandfort hadn’t seen the box score.

“I’m sure it’s pretty absurd,” the Iowa freshman forward said.

The numbers from Iowa’s 112-76 win over Northwestern in Thursday’s Big Ten Tournament second-round game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse were staggering.

Iowa broke four tournament single-game records — total points, 3-pointers made (19), field goals made (43) and margin of victory.

The Hawkeyes broke or tied eight team records in a tournament game — total points, points in a half (64 in the first half), field goals, 3-pointers made, 3-point attempts (29), field-goal percentage (.614), 3-point field-goal percentage (.655) and assists (25).

“We ran into an incredible buzzsaw,” Northwestern coach Chris Collins said. “And we didn’t have an answer.”

“Yeah, we can't play much better than we played tonight, obviously,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said.

The Hawkeyes (23-9), the fifth seed in the tournament, crushed Northwestern (15-16) from the beginning.

Iowa’s 17-4 start in the first five minutes was nothing but fuel for the Hawkeyes who weren’t on the court at the time.

“We saw the starters smoking them,” said Sandfort, who had three 3-pointers and finished with 13 points. “So we were like, ‘Why can’t we do that?’

“We came in firing. We got hot. Everybody was hot.”

Ten Hawkeyes had at least one 3-pointer. Even walk-on Luc Laketa had one, although his banked three at the end of the shot clock as Iowa was backing off to run out the clock drew a bit of ire from McCaffery at the end.

Five Hawkeyes scored in double figures, and all 14 players who got into the game scored.

“It just builds a lot of team morale, the fact that we're able to get a lot of these guys in who haven't had a lot of playing time throughout the season,” said guard Jordan Bohannon, who had 17 points.

“I think the thing that's impressive is we had a lot of different guys making them, it wasn't one or two guys and that's, obviously, what you want as a coach,” McCaffery said.

It was the ninth win in the last 11 games for the Hawkeyes. Collins, whose team has been defeated in two of those, knows what he has seen.

“Those guys, they're playing at a really high level,” Collins said. “Any time we had any kind of breakdown, they made us pay for it.

“I don’t know of anybody who beats them if they shoot like that.”

Iowa shot 67.6 percent from the field in the first half, 61.4 percent for the game. The Hawkeyes had a 45-18 rebounding edge — 16 offensive rebounds led to 16 second-chance points.

A buzzsaw, indeed.

The Hawkeyes have been at their best at the beginning of games in this current run.

“I just think early on I feel like we're moving the ball really well, especially at the start of games, and that's kind of fed into different guys getting easy looks,” said forward Keegan Murray, who led Iowa with 26 points in just 20 minutes. “And we're getting the stops we need. The last couple games, I feel like in the first half we've been getting on runs, our defense has been really good. It's just a tribute to our connection on the court. I think that's something that we need to keep doing.”

The Hawkeyes get fourth seed Rutgers in Friday’s 1 p.m. quarterfinal. The Scarlet Knights defeated Iowa 48-46 earlier this season, the Hawkeyes’ lowest scoring output of the season.

Ron Harper Jr., hit two free throws with two seconds left to give Rutgers the win, a victory that, since the two teams finished tied in the Big Ten standings at the end of the season, gave the Scarlet Knights the double bye in this tournament and put the Hawkeyes into the Thursday round.

McCaffery dismissed any sort of getting-even talk.

“You show up in this tournament, whoever you play against, you'd better be ready,” he said. “Anybody you show up to play against can beat you. We feel like anybody we show up to play against, we can beat them. So we're just trying to lock in to a game plan and play well and stay together.

“All that, "Boy, I hope we have another shot," all that nonsense, you just get on to the next game.”

“We all know Coach McCaffery is a different guy,” Bohannon said, smiling.

Bohannon knew what was next.

“I’ve definitely been marking this game since we saw it on our side of the bracket,” he said. “We deserved an overtime there and we weren’t given it.”

That game back in mid-January, Sandfort said, was at a much different time and place in the Hawkeyes’ schedule.

“It seems like it’s five years ago.” Sandfort said.

That was then, this is now, and the now is quite impressive.