NFL
By: Zachary Draves
After back to back losses and a postponed game against Ohio State due to weather, the Iowa Hawkeyes look to redeem themselves as they took the floor at Carver Hawkeye Arena against the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers.
The Hawkeyes were in serious need to get back in the swing of things as they have lost three out of their last four games and dropped to 9th in the Big Ten rankings.
Ironically, one of their last two wins was on Jan. 16 on the road against Minnesota 81-71.
Meanwhile, the Golden Gophers came into the game in very much the same predicament having lost seven out of their last eight games and falling to 13th in the Big Ten.
Their only win of 2022 was on Jan. 22 at home against Rutgers.
Iowa was without their head coach Fran McCaffery who had tested positive for COVID and assistant coach Billy Taylor stepped in.
So it was safe to say that both teams were in desperate need of a win with tournament play just around the corner.
From the start, the Golden Gophers got off on a 8-2 run with senior forward Eric Curry scoring five of those points whereas the Hawkeyes struggled to convert on some fairly easy shots.
But Iowa quickly got back into it led by the triple threat of senior sixth year Jordan Bohannon, sophomore forward Keegan Murray, and sophomore forward and coach’s son Patrick McCaffery.
Through the first 9:30 minutes of the first half, all three had a combined 12 of the teams first 15 points.
It was a real back and forth with neither side leading anymore by five points signifying that this was anyone’s game.
At the 3:53 mark, Minnesota was leading 30-27 and senior guard Payton Willis was leading the way with 9 points.
Iowa was still struggling converting on easy baskets, gave up offensive rebounds, and weren’t making all their free throws.
But with 1:14 left to play in the first, Keegan Murray took over scoring seven consecutive points to put the Hawkeyes up 34-33 for a total of 14 first half points.
That lead was quickly snatched away as Payton Willis scored with 01.4 seconds left to put the Golden Gophers back up 35-34.
Then senior guard Luke Loewe threw a dagger into the hearts of the Hawkeye faithful as he hit a half court buzzer beater off an Iowa turnover to give the Golden Gophers a 38-34 lead going into the locker room.
As the second half commenced, both teams came storming out the gates and traded baskets.
But about five minutes into it, Minnesota got on a roll with Luke Loewe, feeding off that buzzer beater, hit two three pointers to put the Golden Gophers up 47-42.
However, with 13:17 left, Keegan Murray capped off a 7-0 Iowa run with a three pointer to put Hawkeyes up 49-47 and the crowd at Carver a reason to get loud.
Right there after, Iowa went into their press defense and forced Minnesota to run out the 24 second clock.
For a stretch of about four minutes, Iowa’s defense pretty much stymied the Minnesota offense and the tables had turned to where they were missing some easy shots.
With 6:59 left in the game, Iowa went on an 19-4 run that put them up 61-51.
During that run, sophomore guard Ahron Ulis came off the bench and scored seven of those points.
At the 5:35 mark, Iowa was clearly in control and pretty much had the game in the bag with Keegan Murray scoring his 24th point off an emphatic dunk in the paint to put them ahead 68-52.
From there it was simply a matter of playing until the final whistle blew and when it did Iowa pulled off an unexpectedly dominating victory 71-59.
Afterwards, Murray understood how vital this win was in the long run at this point in time.
“We want to get to March Madness” he said.
“We take it game by game and we knew this game was big for us and we take that to heart”
As for Coach Taylor, who gave credit to his mentor Coach McCaffery for his leadership and guidance, he also spoke of that one game at a time ethos.
“You just focus on what’s in front of you” he said.
“You just have to come out and do your job each and every day.”
He also added “every game in the Big Ten is a dog fight and if you look too far ahead it can get you in trouble.”
Iowa (15-7, 5-6) will travel to play Maryland (11-12, 3-9) on Thursday Feb. 10 at 6:00pm.
Minnesota (11-9, 2-9) will also hit the road to play Nebraska (6-17, 0-12) on Wednesday Feb. 9 at 8:00pm.
