Iowa Basketball: Ugly Win Keeps Hawkeyes Atop Big Ten

The Iowa Basketball team could keep their hold on the top spot in the Big Ten with a win inside Carver Hawkeye Arena on Sunday night. Well, the Hawkeyes got their win, but boy was it ugly.

Every good team has them. Games where they just can’t seem to figure it out and they just aren’t sharp at all. Fortunately for the Hawkeyes, it came against the winless (in Big Ten play) Minnesota Golden Gophers and not Wisconsin.

Iowa struggled in the first half with offensive rebounding as Minnesota was crashing the glass and earning a majority of the rebounds they got. It didn’t help that Iowa’s Jarrod Uthoff started off 0-7 from the field and didn’t score until there was about 3 minutes left in the first half. If not for Peter Jok, Iowa may have found themselves trailing by more throughout the first half, but Jok kept them hanging around with his 12 first half points.

Uthoff would score Iowa’s last nine points of the half and they took a 34-28 lead into the locker room.

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Over the first five minutes of the second half, Iowa widened it’s lead to 10 and it looked like it might get ugly. But you have to give credit to the Gophers, who just hung around. They were like that annoying little brother who always wanted to hang out with you and your older friends. They just wouldn’t go away.

Minnesota would shrink the lead down to four or five and then Iowa would widen it back out to 9 or 10. And that happened throughout the duration of the second half. I started to get really nervous when Minnesota shrunk Iowa’s lead to two at 66-64 with just under three minutes left.

I still had complete confidence that they were going to win, because that’s what good teams do, but that didn’t stop the nerves from setting in. After Joey King made the two free throws to make it a two point game, Peter Jok drilled the biggest shot of the night at the other end when he made a three pointer to stretch Iowa’s lead back out to five. But the Gophers didn’t go away.

It had seemed like the game was completely over with under 10 seconds left as Iowa led by 8, but they fouled Bakary Konate, who made the basket, then missed the following free throw. However, King grabbed the rebound and earned himself a shot at a three point play. After King made the free throw, the lead was three with less than two seconds left. Iowa got the ball into Peter Jok who buried two free throws to shut the door on the Gophers. Iowa had won 75-71.

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Was it a little too close for comfort? Absolutely. Should we all relax a little bit? Yes. This doesn’t mean the team is reeling. They simply had a bad game. Wisconsin lost to Rutgers last year and still made it to the national title game. So, let’s all take a deep breath and relax.

Iowa got 27 points from Peter Jok, who shot the lights out for a majority of the night. Jarrod Uthoff recorded a double double with 24 points and 15 rebounds. Uthoff also added six blocks. Anthony Clemmons was the only other Hawkeye to manage double digits, he ended with 12 points. Mike Gesell struggled a bit from the floor, but did manage 12 assists and a whopping zero turnovers.

Iowa now goes on the road this coming Wednesday. They’ll travel to take on the Penn State Nittany Lions inside the Bryce Jordan Center. Penn State knocked off Indiana there not too long ago, so the Hawkeyes will have to be sharp as they now have a big target on their back being all alone atop the Big Ten conference standings.

That game has a pretty early tip time. The Hawkeyes and Lions tip off at 5:30 p.m. CT.

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Iowa Basketball: Hawkeyes Win Ugly, Now Alone Atop Big Ten

By Dylan Burn | Feb 14, 2016

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