Super comeback: Hawkeye men come from 20 points down to beat Gophers, 90-85

IOWA CITY — Sandwiched between the Iowa women’s basketball team’s loss at Nebraska and the Super Bowl Sunday was a sporting event in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

It began the day as an afterthought. It turned out to be quite a thing, really. The Iowa men’s basketball club rallied from a 62-42 deficit with 16 minutes left to defeat Minnesota, 90-85.

The Hawkeyes scored 16 unanswered points to go from a 77-65 hole to an 81-77 lead with 4:03 left, and brought home the win.

Iowa improved to 6-7 in the Big Ten, 14-10 overall. Minnesota, which had a 3-game winning streak snapped, is 6-6, 15-8.

After Owen Freeman collared his career-high 14th rebound and was fouled with seven seconds left, Iowa’s Tony Perkins danced on the court, Patrick McCaffery stomped his feet in glee, and Payton Sandfort bearhugged Hawkeye assistant coach Sherman Dillard.

Iowa had fallen behind 15-6. And 35-24. And 51-34. The arena was quiet and the mood was indigo when the Hawkeyes trailed 62-42 with 16:11 left. Those fans were roaring in the final seven minutes as McCaffery and Sandfort led their team to big things.

Both had 21 points. Both scored nine in the last 8:18. Perkins had 18 points, Freeman 17. Freeman chipped a tooth while preventing a Gopher basket on the last play of the first half.

“He played like a hockey player today,” Sandfort said.

“He spit it out and kept playing,” said Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery. “That’s what you do.”

McCaffery yanked Freeman in the game’s fourth minute and chewed him out before putting him back in shortly after. Freeman played 35 minutes.

“He started the game a step slow, maybe,” said Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery. “Then he took the game over, 17-14-4-4 (points, rebounds, assists, blocks). That’s a pretty good line for a young guy.”

As for Patrick McCaffery, who hit the 20-point mark for the first time since the second game of the season, Sandfort said “It was about as good as I’ve seen him. He made some big-time shots, some big-time plays. It’s what a senior leader does in moments like that.”

Recovered from an ankle injury suffered several weeks ago, McCaffery drove and shot with confidence.

Minnesota was 11-of-15 from 3-point distance at that point. The shots were open and the Gophers took advantage. But they didn’t make another until hitting a meaningless one at the last second.

Gopher junior forward Dawson Garcia tormented Iowa in the first half. He scored all 18 of his points in the game’s first 14 minutes. He missed the last 15:45 of the game because of an injury.

“When he went out we lost our edge,” Minnesota Coach Ben Johnson said.

Iowa hasn’t really taken off this season. Asked if it can use this win to do so, Sandfort replied “We will.”

After the No. 2 Iowa women squandered a double-digit lead and lost at Nebraska and the Hawkeye men were down by 20, there may have been some Iowa fans who wanted to make it illegal for their teams to play on Super Bowl Sunday.

“Super,” however, became a word the ones who left Carver Sunday afternoon could say with sincerity.

The Hawkeyes’ next game is Wednesday at Maryland (5-8, 13-11), at 7:30 p.m. (CT).

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