(Minneapolis, MN) – The #7-seeded Iowa Hawkeyes are out of the Big Ten Conference Tournament after falling to #10-seeded Ohio State 90-78. Iowa is now 22-23 in all-time games in Big Ten Tournament history.
Iowa held with Ohio State at the half 43-38, but came out flat in the second half, as Ohio State continued to knock down shot after shot. The Buckeyes ended up outscoring Iowa 47-40 in the second half of action.
Ohio State was led on the night by Jamison Battle who shot 6-13 from the field and 9-9 from the charity stripe. He finished with 9.0 rebounds and 23 points, all of which were scored in the second half of action. Bruce Thornton was able to knock down 14 points on the night while dishing out 9.0 assists and hauled in 6.0 boards. Right behind Thornton was Scotty Middleton who shot 3-3 from beyond the arc with 11 points and also swiped away 2.0 steals. The last double-digit scorer was Roddy Gayle Jr. who put down 10 points and hauled in 3.0 rebounds.
The Hawkeyes were led on the night by Waukee native Payton Sandfort who put down 19 points, hauled in 6.0 rebounds, and shot 4-8 from the field. Tony Perkins was right behind him with 13 points, 7.0 assists, and 4.0 rebounds on the night while also going 6-8 from the charity stripe. Sitting right alongside Perkins was Ben Krikke who also put down 13 points and had 2.0 rebounds. Finishing things off in double-digit scoring was Big Ten Freshman of the Year Owen Freeman who put down 10 points and hauled in 9.0 rebounds, just short of a double-double.
Ohio State led in rebounds 42-36 over the Hawkeyes while also leading in steals 4-3. The Buckeyes also led on the scoring end with points in the paint with a 32-28 advantage while the Buckeyes outscored Ohio State 37-16 in bench points. Iowa was also limited in shooting from the field as Ohio State shot 51.7% from the field and Iowa shot 41.9% and was not able to stop Ohio State from scoring from beyond the arc as they shot 55%.
“I’m really proud of this group,” said Head Coach Fran McCaffery. “It’s hard to win 18 games with the schedule we had, you’re right. We had some tough times. We had some tough losses, but we had some great wins. We won some close games. We stayed together.”
Iowa is officially out of contention for the NCAA Tournament but has a chance to be invited to the National Invitational Tournament on Sunday.
