Tony Perkins Heats Up in Hawkeye Win

Junior Guard Nets Career-Best 32 Points in Saturday's Win Against Illinois

Iowa's Tony Perkins (11) looks for an open teammate while being guarded by Illinois' Terrence Shannon Jr. on Feb. 4, 2023 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)

IOWA CITY, Iowa - His teammates knew it.

Tony Perkins wasn’t going to be stopped, and everyone with him on the court had the same thought.

Get him the ball.

Perkins was on his way in the second half to career-high 32 points that would lead Iowa to an 81-79 win over Illinois on Saturday afternoon at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, and there was no way, coach Fran McCaffery said, any other Hawkeye on the court was interested in slowing that down.

“It was, ‘OK, this guy is cooking. Keep going,’” McCaffery said. “What was impressive to me about that was the players who were on the floor with him, they’re yelling out plays to run for him. So they recognized, ‘OK, this guy is on fire. We’re going to him. Nobody else is shooting the ball right now.’”

“The players were calling it,” Perkins said. “C-Mac (Connor McCaffery), Ahron (Ulis), Payton (Sandfort), Kris (Murray), Filip (Rebraca). They were just calling plays, and I was just going with it.”

Illinois had no answer for Perkins in his 25-point second half. The junior guard was 5-of-6 from the field, 15-of-16 in free throws after drawing nine fouls.

Perkins was still grumbling about the missed free throw when it was announced in the post-game press conference that he had tied a program record with 15 consecutive makes.

“Should have been 16,” he said with a slight whisper.

That one point didn’t matter on a day when every possession felt like it could win or lose the game. There were nine lead changes in the game, and nine ties. Illinois’ biggest lead was eight points, the Hawkeyes’ biggest lead was five.

Iowa (15-8 overall, 7-5 Big Ten) took its final lead on Sandfort’s 3-pointer from the right side with 1:23 left.

“When Payton hit that three toward the end of the game, that’s probably the loudest I’ve heard Carver,” Murray said. “It was special.”

The heat of the rivalry, combined with the sellout crowd on what, at least for recent times, was a Saturday afternoon home game, made this feel like so many of the games that have been a part of this series.

Perkins seemed to enjoy that.

“It’s a rivalry game,” Perkins said. “I love those. In high school, I was the same way. I decided this was going to be a game, we were going to win this one. Regardless if I did good, points or whatever, we were going to win.”

And so the Hawkeyes did, a victory clinched when Connor McCaffery grabbed the rebound off the intentionally-missed free throw from Coleman Hawkins with a little more than a second left.

Illinois (16-7, 7-5) has always been a team that attacked the Hawkeyes, and this game was no different. Matthew Mayer’s 21 points, 15 in the first half, led the Illini, who had a 37-26 rebounding edge and had 36 points inside.

“That’s a really good team,” Fran McCaffery said. “They’re really good. I’ve been watching it on film the last three days. They have talent, they have size, they have depth. They have driver. They have veterans, they have young guys. It takes a lot to beat that.”

Iowa swept three home games this week and moved into a tie with the Illini for third place in the conference.

Iowa’s February-March run last season was sparked by the insertion of Perkins into the starting lineup, and as the Hawkeyes take their early steps into the second half of the conference schedule, he seems poised to be that guy again.

“He gets everyone going when he’s playing like that,” said Murray, who had 19 points and seven rebounds while being among the many players in foul trouble. “You just feed off his energy when he gets going like that. He really carried us today, especially on the offensive end.”

Perkins said he embraced that role.

“Gotta be,” he said. “Because I want to win. I like to win. Feels good to win.”