Recap
The Iowa Hawkeyes got a "Big" home W as they downed the Washington Huskies 85-79 on Saturday night, after losing 2 straight games. It took until the 13 minute mark of the second half for the Hawkeyes to claw their way back into the ball game and tie it up, but they pushed through a sluggish first half to secure the W. At the break, Iowa found themselves down 1 point, shooting 43% from the field and 36% from 3, while only attempting a total of 3 free throws (made 2). Their offense came alive in the second half, where they scored 52 points on 52% shooting and 71% from 3 and did massive damage at the line sinking 21/23 free throws. The victory was due in large part to Payton Sandfort who dropped 20 of his 27 points in the second half and was a monster at the charity stripe going 12/13.
Analysis
The Hawkeyes looked sluggish out of the gate on both ends of the floor as Washington looked to jump on them early. After a grinding first 20 minutes, the Huskies took a meager 1 point lead into half. Iowa woke up in the second half as they got their offense back on track and their defense did just enough to secure the win. A pleasant surprise came from the bench mob and the "play the hot hand" approach taken by Coach Fran McCaffery. The bench mob scored a cool 36 points as Fran continues to mix and match lineups after the absence of leading scorer Owen Freeman. The biggest surprises came from Riley Mulvey and Carter Kingsbury. Mulvey, a seldom used big man out of Rotterdam, NY was only averaging 2.3 points-per-game on 8.1 mintues-per-game and doubled both as he saw the floor for 15 minutes and put up 9 points. Carter Kingsbury also got a huge chunk of minutes (29) after averaging only 6.4 minutes all season as he effectively replaced starter Drew Thelwell in the rotation on Saturday night. It was a stroke of genius by McCaffery on this night as the bench outpaced the starters in scoring for most of the game until the very end, as Iowa was able to get a win in front of a raucous Carver-Hawkeye crowd. My pregame keys to the game were as follows:
1. Guard the 3-point line with more effectiveness (allowed 47% on 9/19 shooting) ❌
2. Limit turnovers (7) ✅
3. Protect home court (85-79 W) ✅
Final word: Iowa overcame a sluggish start to win a must win game they should have won and will look to carry this momentum into the next game. They will be hard-pressed to get this kind of bench production every night, but it is encouraging to see they were ready to go when Fran called on them. The Hawkeyes will need to be firing on all cylinders Tuesday night (2/25) as they face a tough road test at Illinois in Champaign.