Hawkeye men pull away from UMBC, 103-81; 12 assists for Brock Harding

IOWA CITY -- It was a tight game, then it wasn’t a game at all.

Iowa turned a tied men’s basketball game with five minutes left in the first half into a 50-36 lead at the break, then brought it home Wednesday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena for a 103-81 win over UMBC.

Iowa improved to 7-5, with six of the wins against mid-majors. The Retrievers of Maryland, Baltimore County are 5-9.

Senior guard Tony Perkins, a catalyst in Iowa’s late first-half splash, had 21 points, as well as seven assists and six rebounds. He scored five points over two consecutive possessions early in the second half as the Hawkeyes pulled away even more.

Freshman guard Brock Harding had 12 assists, the most by a Hawkeye since Jordan Bohannon’s 14 in January 2021. Harding also had his second-straight 10-point game.

An Even Brauns dunk off a Harding feed put Iowa over the 100-point mark.

Other Hawkeyes: Payton Sandfort had 18 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. Senior forward Ben Krikke had 17 points and 12 rebounds. Patrick McCaffery scored 14 points.

Dion Brown scored 23 for the Retrievers.

The game was 31-31 with five minutes left in the first half, and UMBC led by as much as 26-21 before that. The Retrievers came out hot, hitting their first three 3-point tries in the game’s first 1:32.

Iowa took command late in the half with a 19-5 run built on defense and transition offense. Perkins and Sandfort were particulary effective in multiple ways. Perkins had 12 points and four assists in the half, Sandfort 10 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

The Hawkeyes are off until they host Northern Illinois on Dec. 29.

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