Payton Sandfort and Patrick McCaffery scored 21 points apiece, and Iowa stormed back from a 20-point deficit in the second half to beat Minnesota 90-85 in a Big Ten matchup on Sunday afternoon in Iowa City.
Tony Perkins added 18 points for Iowa (14-10, 6-7 Big Ten), which completed a regular-season sweep with its second win over Minnesota. Owen Freeman scored 17 points and grabbed 14 rebounds.
Dawson Garcia and Braeden Carrington scored 18 points apiece to lead Minnesota (15-8, 6-6). Mike Mitchell Jr. finished with 17 points for the Golden Gophers, whose three-game winning streak ended.
Iowa closed the game on a 48-23 run to secure the comeback win.
Mitchell increased Minnesota’s lead to 20 points early in the second half. He made a 3-pointer to put the Golden Gophers on top 62-42 with 16:11 to go.
Iowa went on a 20-8 run to pull within 70-62 with 9:53 left. McCaffery capped the run with four straight points, with two free throws and a layup.
The Hawkeyes kept the pressure on the Golden Gophers. Sandfort made a layup to give Iowa a 78-77 lead with 4:34 to go. Sandfort added a 3-pointer to make it 81-77 in favor of Iowa with 4:05 left.
The Golden Gophers pulled within 84-82 with 1:30 to go.
Iowa scored six late points in a row to put the game away. McCaffery made two free throws, Perkins made three free throws and Freeman finished with one free throw.
Minnesota led 51-38 at the half.
Iowa stayed competitive through the first 12-plus minutes. McCaffery made a layup to pull the Hawkeyes within 26-24 with 7:47 to go in the half.
The Golden Gophers responded with a 12-1 run to seize a 38-25 lead with 5:44 remaining. Mitchell started the run with a 3-pointer off a feed from Parker Fox, and Cam Christie finished it with a 3-pointer off a pass from Garcia.
Mitchell gave Minnesota a 17-point lead with a 3-pointer that made it 51-34 with 1:10 to play in the half.
Freeman had back-to-back dunks to finish the first-half scoring and pull Iowa within 13.
–Field Level Media
