Iowa feasts in paint in win over Gophers

The Hawkeyes scored 56 points inside during their win Monday night.

The Gophers men’s basketball team looked like it was going to run Iowa off the Williams Arena floor Monday night.

Elijah Hawkins got three steals in the first 2 minutes, 11 seconds of the game, the Gophers turned those into transition buckets and jumped out to a 14-3 advantage in the opening minutes. A Hawkins alley oop to Josh Ola-Joseph during that run fired up the announced crowd of 8,379 at The Barn.

But a few turnovers, several Hawkeyes buckets and a couple bad shot attempts later and the Hawkeyes turned their deficit into a 20-18 lead, causing Gophers assistant coach Dave Thorson to erupt on the team during a timeout.

The U never found its way back in an 86-77 loss.

The Hawkeyes (11-6, 3-3 Big Ten) lived in and controlled the paint all night. Whether it was Ben Krikke backing down a defender or Iowa simply finding open cutters, the team racked up 56 points in the paint. That effort inside drove the Hawkeyes’ comeback, and helped them build a lead as large as 12 points in the second half.

"Everybody saw it, we just wasn't disciplined and we got backdoor cut a lot," Ola-Joseph said. "We just gotta see it back in practice, back to the drawing board. Not much to say about it, everybody saw it."  

The Gophers (12-5, 3-3), meanwhile, attempted 29 shots from 3-point range, making just five (17.2%). Overall they were 28 of 58 from the field (48.3%).

"Those guys put in so much time shooting, and sometimes that can almost be a detriment because you shoot it so much, you practice it, you see it go in that when it doesn't in a game, it's easy to get down cause you're wondering, 'Alright, why am I not making shots?'" Gophers coach Ben Johnson said. "Especially when they're good looks. Because you've worked on it so much for so long. So it's fighting that a little bit." 

Dawson Garcia provided a boost to the U's field-goal percentage with his efforts in the paint — overall, the Gophers scored 38 points inside — as he found his way to shots at the rim while he worked his way to a game-high 30 points.

He finished 9 of 17 from the field. Ola-Joseph shot 7 of 9 and finished with 15 points, but was slowed down in the second half after scoring 11 in the opening 20 minutes.

Garcia’s efforts helped the U whittle the Hawkeyes’ lead down to five late in the second frame, but the Gophers couldn’t work their way any closer. Josh Dix helped Iowa close, hitting a couple 3-pointers and a few shots from midrange in big moments as he scored 14 of his 21 points in the half.

Krikke led Iowa with 25 points.

Coming off a big game against Indiana, Pharrel Payne was held to just three points and played just 14 minutes. Johnson said he wasn't sure whether Payne was cramping or something else, but that he wasn't at 100% during the game. 

Iowa outrebounded the Gophers 37-30. The Hawkeyes got nine offensive rebounds and scored 15 second-chance points to go along with 16 points off turnovers.