Sandforts and Fun: Brothers make 10 of Iowa’s 18 3-pointers in 89-74 win over Southern

IOWA CITY — There will be no taunting or one-upmanship from Pryce Sandfort toward his big brother, Payton Sandfort.

“I don’t think I can do that,” Pryce said after scoring a game-high and career-high 22 points in Iowa’s 89-74 men’s basketball win over Southern University Thursday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“He’s had too many games like that, double-doubles every night. So I don’t think I can give him too much grief about that.”

Senior forward Payton Sandfort is a preseason first-team All-Big Ten player who averaged 16.4 points last season. Brother Pryce is a sophomore who averaged 2.3 points a season ago.

Remember this, though: Pryce is the Sandfort who was an Iowa Mr. Basketball, in 2023. When Payton was a senior at Waukee High in 2021, Mr. Basketball was Tucker DeVries, who now plays at West Virginia.

Pryce Sandfort made his first six 3-point attempts. He finally missed his last two treys on a night in which his team was 18-of-40 from deep.

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In a game with a sparse crowd, Payton Sandfort was no spectator. He scored 17 points to go with eight rebounds and seven assists, and made 4 of 11 3s. But Pryce was the Sandfort with the hottest hand in the gym.

“I’d say it’s been a little bit since I felt like that, hitting that many 3s,” Pryce said. “It felt really good to go out there and do that.”

The last time? “Senior year of high school,” he said.

“The guy was Mr. Basketball for a reason,” said Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery. “He was the best player in the state.

Last season, McCaffery said, Pryce Sandfort “was trying to fit in as a freshman and was trying to be solid. It’s like ‘Dude, you need to make plays, you need to be aggressive, you need to drive the ball, you need to impact the game with your length, your size, with your shooting.”

The 6-foot-6 wing had one game with more than six points last season. He had a career-high 13 in Monday’s season-opening win against Texas A&M-Commerce before shooting past that number Thursday.

As far as the game itself, Iowa led 48-37 at halftime and was ahead by double-digits the rest of the way. It led 89-64 before surrendering the last 10 points.

“We’ve got to be tougher than that,” McCaffery said.

“I think we need more pride getting stops,” said Iowa sophomore center Owen Freeman, who had 15 points and made his first career 3-pointer.

If you can go 18-of-40 from 3-point in college ball, you usually can glide.

“Eighteen 3s. We shot a lot,” McCaffery said. “Maybe too many. But I only remember two or three where the guys went ‘Ah, it’s probably too quick.’

“Most of those guys were open. It was after ball movement.”

Hawkeye forward Seydou Traore sat out for the second-straight game. He had a walking boot on his right foot Thursday, but McCaffery said he expects Traore to be ready for Iowa’s next game, here next Tuesday against South Dakota.

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