Iowa coach Fran McCaffery discusses his team’s victory over Indiana
With Tuesday night’s win, Iowa men’s basketball has improved to 11-8 in the Big Ten and has a strong shot at a double bye in the conference tournament.
Kennington Lloyd Smith III, Hook Central
Bloomington, Indiana – In the highly anticipated rematch between Iowa and Indiana men’s basketball, the Hokkey team produced one of its most impressive performances of the season.
Two bad performances on the road in a row have Hawks fans worried about Tuesday’s trip to Assembly Hall. But the Hawkeyes were the early aggressors and never trailed in a 90-68 win.
Four Iowa players scored in double figures, led by Tony Perkins’ 23 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists and Chris Murray’s 26 points and seven rebounds. Philip Rybraca added 16 points and eight rebounds, and Payton Sandfort scored 16 points. Iowa shot 56% from the field and 57% from the 3-point line.
“If you sign up to play in this league, you want to play in that kind of environment,” said coach Fran McCaffery. “And you have to want to compete against (Indiana), a team that’s playing really well. The fact that we beat them (by 12) showed how competitive we were but you hit 13 triples on the road, you have a good chance of winning.”
With Tuesday’s win, Iowa improved to 19-11 overall, 11-8 in Big Ten play and is well positioned to finish the regular season.
“I feel like we’re really hitting our stride,” Murray said. “I feel like we kept the momentum from (Saturday’s win against Michigan State) and around this time last year we were doing the same thing: winning big games on the road. I think adapting to adapting on the road, which is what we’ll need to do in March is a big thing for us. Why do we need this game?
Chris Murray and Tony Perkins set an early tone for Iowa’s offense
Tony Perkins’ performance sparked Iowa Basketball’s victory over Indiana
Tony Perkins, an Indianapolis native, was the mainstay in Iowa’s dominant basketball victory Tuesday night over Indiana.
Kennington Lloyd Smith III, Hook Central
Perkins predicted that Iowa’s hot shot in its win over Michigan State on Saturday would carry over into Tuesday night. And it certainly happened in the first half as Iowa got off to a strong start on offense.
“We were still excited (after the Michigan State game),” Perkins said. “We started practicing the next day and came to it with the same mentality. We had lost some games on the road and we wanted to come up with a road killer mentality and we did (on Tuesday).”
Murray started his scoring spell with two early 3-pointers that gave the Hawkeyes a 6-0 lead in the first minute of the game. A few seconds later, Rebraca added a tackle that forced the Hoosiers into an early timeout. Iowa’s previous shooting problems on the road were nowhere near Bloomington as the team posted 5 of 5 starts from the field and 3 of 3 starts. Iowa led 16-5 at first media timeout.
“I think they were changing (defenders) a lot more than they had done against us before,” Murray said. “Just confusing them with movement off the ball got me a few looks early. The basket seemed too big to me tonight. I needed that, I’ve been struggling the last few games.”
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The Hoosiers ran to a sold-out assembly hall crowd. Star forward Trace Jackson-Davis powered Indiana’s offense with 15 first-half points, seven rebounds and three assists. After a series of Iowa misses, it was a three-point game near the halfway mark. But the Hawkeyes found a spark in Perkins.
The Indianapolis native pitched an emotionally charged first half that set Iowa on fire on both sides of the court. He shared words with the home crowd after nearly every basket, controlled the pace of his passing and was outspoken during Iowa’s timeouts. McCaffrey and the players note that Perkins had approximately 35 family members. His homecoming performance was a pivotal part of Iowa’s victory.
“(My teammates) know I talk and play hard when I’m in the game,” Perkins said. “I show that I want to win and show energy and that also locks them in and they are 100 percent behind me. I’m the same way with them, whoever brings the spark I’m with them.”
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The rest of the team fed on that energy and the Perkins/Murray duo led Iowa to a 47-36 halftime lead. Perkins and Murray totaled 28 points, seven rebounds and nine assists in the first half.
The Hawkeyes started the second half with three turnovers in less than a minute, reigniting the Hoosier fans. But Iowa settled behind continued excellence from Murray and Perkins.
Murray briefly silenced the crowd with three-pointers that extended Iowa’s lead to 50-38 at the 18:54 mark, and from there he either scored or assisted Perkins on Iowa’s next six baskets, which came back-to-back after initial turnovers. Within four minutes, Iowa’s lead had swelled by nine points to a comfortable 61-40 advantage and the game was firmly in hand.
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Iowa’s final test came at 11:12 when Murray and Rebraca were benched with three errors each as Iowa held a 66-45 lead. A lineup of Perkins, Josh Dix, Peyton Sandvoort, Patrick McCaffrey and Josh Ogundel produced a few solid minutes to keep Iowa’s lead at 20 points with eight minutes left to play. The Hawk offense struggled through this stretch but timely free throws by Perkins pinned the offense to maintain the lead.
Despite the overall superiority in offense, perhaps the most impressive part of Tuesday night’s win was Iowa’s defense. The Hawkeyes surrendered 21 points short of their 91-89 victory over Indiana on January 5. The Hoosiers (20-10, 11-8) were held to 18% from the three-point line and rarely had a second chance: Iowa won the rebounding battle with a +12 margin and allowed only six offensive rebounds. Jackson-Davis finished with 26 points but no other Hoosier player finished in double figures.
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Tuesday was arguably the biggest win of Iowa’s season and puts the team nicely into a good final position in the Big Ten standings. At 11-8, the Hawkeyes need a big Sunday win over Nebraska to stay in contention for the top 4 seed and a two-time bye in the conference tournament.
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