(Minneapolis, MN) — Winning on the road in the Big Ten is never easy and Iowa found that out the hard way on Tuesday night falling at Minnesota 70-67.
The Hawkeyes knew they were in for a tussle when the Gophers jumped out to a 12-3 lead. Iowa finally got going with with a Isaia Howard lay up and a jumper from Kael Combs. Howard added another jumper to cut it to 3. A Combs dribble drive lay up gave Iowa a 17-16 lead and a Cooper Koch three pointer made it 20-16.
Minnesota then got going again and went on a 12-0 run and led 31-24 at the half.
The Gophers stretched their lead to 12 early in the 2nd half 38-26. Now it was Iowa’s turn to make a run — after a Bennett Stirtz free throw, Howard got another lay up, Stirtz made a driving bank shot and Iowa cut it to 38-31. The teams traded baskets — a Tavion Bank three pointer cut it to 44-39 with 11 minutes left but again Minnesota responded with a 9-0 run to make it 53-39 with 9:34 remaining.
Still plenty of time for Iowa to rally the troops but the game settled into a free throw contest — a Combs turnaround jumper made it 59-51 with 4:37 left. A Howard lay up cut the lead to 6 with 3:54 remaining. Stirtz hit a huge three pointer to cut the lead in half to 62-59 with 2:29 left. After two free throws from Cade Tyson for Minnesota, Brendan Hausen hit a three pointer with 1:48 left to cut the lead to one 63-62. After a Gopher turnover, Cooper Koch hit a short jumper to give Iowa a 64-63 lead but there was still 1:14 to go.
Iowa exerted all that energy to come back but they could not hold the lead. Moments later, Jaylen Crocker-Johnson had Minnesota’s answer with a three to retake a 66-64 lead. Hausen missed a three with 45 seconds left and two Gopher free throws made it a two possession game. Crocker Johnson would miss two free throws and Stirtz hit a three with 16 seconds left to cut the lead to one. Isaac Asuma made 2 FT for Minnesota and it was a three point lead but Hausen and Stirtz both missed threes and Minnesota survived.
Langston Reynolds led Minnesota (10-5, 3-1) with 22 points, Cade Tyson had 16 and Crocker Johnson and Asuma both had 10 points.
Iowa (12-3, 2-2) was led by Stirtz with 21 points, Combs had 14, Howard finished with 10, and Koch had 9.
