Iowa Men's Basketball holds off Seton Hall in San Diego

After a loss to Oklahoma in the opening round of the Rady Children’s Invitational in San Diego, the Iowa men’s basketball team was looking for a different effort on Friday afternoon against Seton Hall. They wanted to have more energy, more urgency and all around better play. Head Coach Fran McCaffery got what he was hoping for, as the Hawkeyes defeated the Pirates 85-72.

“They did exactly what I though they were going to do,” said Fran McCaffery. “This team has been together for a while. We played three games overseas, we’ve played six games (this season). I expected them to be resilient and to respond the way they did and I’m really proud of it.”

After a rough start against Oklahoma, the Hawkeyes responded with an energetic start against Seton Hall. They jumped out to a 36-20 lead, including 13 points from Ben Krikke . The Pirates started 6/32 from the floor and had a seven minute stretch where they did not make a field goal.

“I think we knew we had to get off to a really good start today,” said McCaffery. “We rebounded really well yesterday, but we didn’t execute offensively at all and today our offense was really clicking. That’s what we needed.”

Seton Hall made 5 of their last eight shots in the half, including back-to-back three-pointers from Dylan Addae-Wusu to cut into the Iowa lead. At the half, the Hawkeyes led 44-33.

Payton Sandfort finished with a game-high 22 points, including four three-pointers. He hit a pair from behind the arc in the first two minutes of the second half to answer the Pirates who started the half 4/5 from the floor. At that point it was 53-39 Hawkeyes, but Seton Hall responded with a 10-0 run to cut it to a four-point defecit.

The Pirates hung with Iowa for the better part of the second half, but were never able to pull even. Patrick McCaffery knocked down a three-pointer and Ben Krikke got a basket in the lane to extend the lead to 71-61 with 6:21 to play. Down the stretch, Iowa was 10/12 from the free throw line and they were able to salt away an 85-72 win.

“We played two really good teams and we knew that before we got on the plane. We played really well today and did some good things yesterday, some things that had to be corrected and we got them corrected today,” said McCaffery. “That’s exactly what we hoped to accomplish when we came out here.”

Ben Krikke finished as the second-leading scorer for the Hawkeyes with 19 points on 8/10 shooting, as well as five assists. He spoke about what went well for him against Seton Hall, as well as the response from the team after the loss to Oklahoma.

“I was really impressed with the guys. We talked a lot about effort last night. We came out flat against Oklahoma. It was frustrating, so we just got in the film room, figured out what we needed to figure out, made adjustments. Credit to our coaches, they did a great job scouting and we executed the game plan well and played with energy.”

“Just picking spots and it comes down to scouting and understanding how they would guard ball screens. We knew they were going to ice it on the side and be a little more hard hedge in the middle. Just reading, reacting out of that, hitting open shots and being aggresive driving.”

Tony Perkins finished with 14 points, five rebounds and five assists, while Patrick McCaffery added ten points and six rebounds. For the game, the Hawkeyes shot 31/55 (56.4%), including 7/19 (36.8%) from three-point range.

“I think the important thing was that they all respond (the veterans) as leaders, as mature guys who know and understand, have been through it and also set the tone for the youngers guys that came in off the bench,” said McCaffery. “They did exactly that, so a very professional approach by those guys.”

Payton Sandfort was named to the Rady Children’s Invitational All-Tournament team for his performance over two games. He finished with 34 points, 16 rebounds and four assists.

Up Next, the Hawkeyes return to Iowa City for a matchup against the North Florida Ospreys at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on November 29th. Tipoff is set for 8:00pm CT and the game will be televised on the Big Ten Network.