2023-12-17 02:13:48
Brock Harding, Payton Sandfort enjoy Hawkeyes rout in Des Moines
Harding dazzled with his shots and passes, and Sandfort had a fun return to a place he played 12 times while at Waukee High School.
After a dreary and difficult week of basketball, the Iowa men needed a get-right game in front of a friendly environment against a listless foe.
The Hawkeyes dialed up that precise recipe Saturday at Wells Fargo Arena, with an 88-52 thrashing of Florida A&M that allowed several struggling players to get back on track.
In the afternoon appetizer for the sold-out crowd to watch hometown megastar Caitlin Clark and the Iowa women, the men toyed with the visiting Rattlers from the get-go in its first game in downtown Des Moines since a 2018 win vs. Northern Iowa.
The result – after losses to Purdue, Iowa State and Michigan by a combined 54 points – pushed Iowa back over the .500 mark at 6-5. The win was expected, but the result was needed for many in the gold uniforms.
In the first 10 minutes, eight different Hawkeyes scored, as head coach Fran McCaffery clearly wanted to get everybody in his 10-man rotation involved early.
“We haven’t been playing the connected basketball we’ve needed to over that really tough stretch,” junior Payton Sandfort said. “We’ve been working on it and practices have been very good. I’m proud of the way we started … and to start the second half we were moving it really well, too.”
That list included Sandfort, in a homecoming of his own, as the junior chipped in a pair of 2-pointers in the first 2½ minutes after having only two 2s in 89 minutes during the previous three-game stretch. In Sandfort’s first game at Wells Fargo Arena since leading Waukee to the 2021 state championship, the sharpshooter finished with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting.
“I remember the last time I was in (the tunnel here) I was sprinting back, throwing water everywhere,” Sandfort said. “… I played 12 games in here. So many good memories in here.”
Freshman Owen Freeman sought something better than his 1-for-1 shooting game in his first career start against Michigan. He got that and was arguably the best player on the floor Saturday, other than a missed dunk with nobody around him. (Hey, rookie mistake.) The 6-foot-10 Moline native logged a team-best 14 points and a career-high 11 rebounds in 19 minutes.
McCaffery referenced some nagging injuries that slowed Freeman’s preseason progress. This looked like his best offering yet.
“Once he’s been healthy, he’s been spectacular,” McCaffery said. “He’s such a winning player and character guy and he wants to execute the game plan to perfection. Sometimes you just have to run around and fly around and impact the game with your athletic ability, your size, your strength.”
Fellow freshman forward Ladji Dembele had a rough introduction to Big Ten play and scored two points on 1-for-9 shooting in 36 minutes over the three-game skid. On Saturday, Dembele buried his first three shots – including a 3-pointer – and finished with a career-high nine points. That included a one-handed dunk for a 77-41 lead.
Senior Tony Perkins, who was mourning his grandmother’s death last week, looked more like himself Saturday. That included a dunk to start the second half and a poster-style block of 6-6 Keith Lamar. Perkins flirted with Clark-like triple-double numbers for a while but needed more minutes to do the trick. Perkins finished with 12 points, seven assists and five rebounds in just 21 minutes.
If Freeman wasn’t the best player in a Hawkeye uniform, it was freshman Brock Harding. The fellow Moline prep was electric at times, with his up-and-under reverse bucket − the shot going in with his off (left) hand − drawing oohs and aahs from the locals. Harding also canned a pair of 3-pointers and dazzled with a no-look pass to Pryce Sandfort. He even swatted Miles Hall for his first career block on his way to a career-high 10 points.
Harding looked a bit overwhelmed nine days earlier at Hilton Coliseum but the point guard showed his high upside Saturday.
“We felt like (starting slow) was a big problem the last couple games, we kind of got hit first and were behind the rest of the game,” Harding said. “We made a big emphasis to come out with (a) lot of energy. I felt like our team did a great job of that. Guys were ready to attack.”
Iowa didn’t need much from leading scorer Ben Krikke, whose five points barely eclipsed walk-on Luc Laketa’s four. That’s what kind of this game was, an empty-the-bench affair.
It would have been nice to see Patrick McCaffery heat up. The coach’s son battled recurring anxiety a year ago and hasn’t been performing at his best lately. In a team-high 21:13 of playing time, he had six points and was 1-for-4 from 3-point range, barely missing several wide-open looks.
“I thought at Iowa State he wasn’t quite himself,” his father acknowledged. “Other than that, he’s been pretty good. He’s frustrated he missed those free throws today (1-for-3). … His shots looked good. They’re open shots. He rebounded the ball fairly well today I thought (four), with three assists. He’s always looking for his teammates, and his defense I think has really been good.”
The defense looked better, too. The opponent was a big factor, sure. Florida A&M hadn’t scored more than 68 points against a Division I opponent all year and never sniffed that mark. The Rattlers scored just once on their first 11 possessions and struggled against the Hawkeyes’ rangy starting five that uses four players at 6-7 or taller, plus Perkins at 6-4.
After allowing 90 points to Michigan and Iowa State and 87 to Purdue, holding an opponent to 52 felt like an accomplishment. That was the lowest point total for a Hawkeye foe since 51 vs. Penn State on Jan. 22, 2022, a span of 59 games.
Even Fran McCaffery had a drama-free day after he was ejected in Sunday’s 90-80 home loss to Michigan. His Hawkeyes host Maryland-Baltimore College at 7 p.m. Wednesday, a chance to build on Saturday’s get-well performance.
Hawkeyes columnist Chad Leistikow has covered sports for 29 years with The Des Moines Register and USA TODAY Sports Network. Join Chad’s text-message group (free for subscribers) at HawkCentral.com/HawkeyesTexts. Follow @ChadLeistikow on Twitter.
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