Iowa City – Even halfway through January and only 30% of the way into the Big Ten Conference season, the identity of the Iowa basketball team is becoming apparent.
These are the returning children. No deficit seems too big. Yes, they’ve had their ups and downs. And they will road behind sometimes. But this group of players, whether they win or lose, will play hard throughout the forty minutes. sometimes 45.
The Hawkeyes recovered a miraculous finish in regulation Thursday night, then dominated in five minutes of overtime to outrun visiting Michigan, 93-84, in front of 11,498 fans at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
“It just shows the fight we have on our team,” said Chris Murray, who played every second of this fast-paced, high-octane contest, but he didn’t look tired as he scored 27 points. “Wisconsin, Indiana and even Penn State…have shown what kind of toughness we are. We will never go without a fight.”
The three Big Ten games, in particular, the Hawkeyes likely made those who left the arena early to beat traffic regret that decision.
VS Wisconsin in the Big Ten opener on December 11: Iowa was down 60-52 with less than a minute left, then rallied 8-0 — getting the bucket, stealing and Patrick McCaffery 3-pointer in the final 20 seconds — to force overtime at 60- 60 before falling by 3.
VS Indiana Jan. 5: Down 21 points in the first half and still down 84-78 with 3 1/2 minutes left, the Hawkeyes came back to steal an improbable 91-89 win.
And now we can add Thursday’s performance to our return ledger.
Michigan was hot most of the night, bagging 14 of 25 3-pointers in regulation. The opposing team does not often win in such situations. But Iowa committed only six turns of the game. She got the contributions she needed from Murray as well as rarely used bench players Josh Dix (10 points, five assists) and Riley Mulvey (4 points, 13 minutes) to stay within striking distance early on. She leaned in on the team’s new rising star, sophomore Peyton Sandvoort, of late.
Michigan led, 77-70, with the ball with two minutes left. But Sandfort stole the ball from Jett Howard, and Filip Rebraca’s bucket with 1:46 left narrowed the lead to 5.
After Iowa’s better-fitting defense of the game forced Michigan’s Kofe Bufkin out of bounds, Sandfort buried a game-high 3 with 1:03 remaining to make it 77-75.
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Bufkin silenced the roaring Carver crowd with a bucket to make it 79-75 with 29 seconds left, and inexplicably… Iowa didn’t need a foul to get back at it. That’s because Sandfort moved to the top of the corkscrew, quickly shooting a 3 and being fouled by Bufkin. Swish, as it crashes to the ground. Then with the arena quiet and all the pressure on him, Sandfort quietly buried the free throw to tie it at 79 with 20.7 seconds left. A block by Dix at the end of regulation, this one heads into overtime.
“I came off the pin and felt it on my thigh. Then they came out,” Sandvoort said of his 4-point play.
heat check?
“Yes, you can say that,” Sandfort said, smiling. “right on time.”
Teammates love Sandfort. He lights up the room with his smile. No player was happier, Murray said, than Sandfort, who was 0-for-19 off the floor of the Big Ten game ahead of a three-game Big Ten winning streak in the past eight days. He scored 22 points in 22 minutes in Sunday’s win at Rutgers Stadium. (Look, Iowa not always You have to play from behind).
He poured 24 of his career-high 26 points against the Wolverines after he was forced into the game with 17:40 left in the second half, after coach Fran McCaffrey got angry with his team’s defense and called a timeout.
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Iowa was down 51-44, at the time. The Hawkeyes continued to grind, even with Michigan’s Jett Howard (34 points) seemingly unable to miss as they also tried to block rookie star Hunter Dickinson (13 points, 12 rebounds, but six shot attempts and four turnovers).
Then overtime.
Sandvoort time, in this case.
He started the extra frame by continuing to look for opportunities, even when Michigan was very aware of his every move. He used a base jumper with his signature quick release to give Iowa one of their few leads of the night to that point, 81-79. After a few trips, with Iowa hitting 3 times, he played the game. Or you can say co-play in the game.
Murray threw a right wing 3. Sandvoort joked that he usually starts running to the other end to celebrate after Murray’s 3. But this time, he saw the ball turn over and went for the bounce. While in the air, Sandfort picked up the ball and tossed it toward the basket in one motion.
Cup out and in, drew another foul and made the free throw for an 85-79 lead. The Carver crowd now felt the home team would pull it off.
“I forced the genre out,” Murray said. “It was the right place and the right time. … I don’t know if he honestly saw the basket.”
Is it?
Nah, Sandfort admitted. It was a blind bullet. (Hey, when you’re hot, you’re hot.)
“I saw it fly through the air,” said Sandvoort, “and he came up and tried to play on it.”
What McCaffrey loved about Thursday’s Sandvoort performance is that it did more than just score. He grabbed seven rebounds and three assists. This was absolutely huge as Patrick McCaffrey lost his third straight game and he’s been dealing with anxiety issues. Sandvoort has filled a teammate’s scoring void and then some, after a shooting struggle at the start of the season.
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“Everyone loves him. He’s a great teammate. Very positive,” said Fran McCaffrey. “We’re all rooting for him. When it cooks, it definitely improves everyone else’s energy level.”
There is definitely something to that.
The shot that broke the 0-for-19 streak at Sandvoort? That came when Iowa fell 23-4 early on against Indiana. The Hawkeyes were 0-3 in the Big Ten at the time and failed miserably at home. They were on the ropes, maybe for the season.
But Sandfort was brought in off the bench and a 3-pointer caddy to cut it to 23-7. Then the bucket seems unimportant. But little by little, the Hawkeyes were pulling away and winning that game. Sandfort’s confidence grew. So did the team. The NCAA tournament is definitely within reach.
“We got back a lot of swagger that we didn’t have before,” Murray said. “The guys play well, and they feed off each other. The chemistry is great. This is a team that just didn’t stop believing, even when I slipped a little bit.”
We’ve learned a lot about who this team is in the last eight days. Now, the Hawkeyes (11-6 overall 3-3 Big Ten) must muster the energy to keep them going. They got two more games on deck: 3:30 PM Sunday vs. Maryland, then 8 PM Wednesday vs. Northwestern. Murray hopes the place will be crowded on Sunday.
“Just going back to the .500 at the conference. I mean, a week and a half ago, everyone was in the dumps,” Sandvoort said. “We were 28-7 against Indiana. It feels a lot better now. We just have to keep grinding. It’s just one game, but it looks good.”
Hawkeyes columnist Chad Leistikow has covered sports for 28 years with The Des Moines Register, USA TODAY, and Iowa City Press-Citizen. Follow @ChadLeistikow on Twitter.
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