Career-high scoring nights for Filip Rebraca, Payton Sandfort in Iowa rout

IOWA CITY — Filip Rebraca had to fight off a voice from the Carver-Hawkeye Arena stands Saturday night, while Payton Sandfort had to stop battling himself.

Both prevailed Saturday night, and their Iowa men’s basketball team won with ease, 106-75 over Southeast Missouri State.

Rebraca had a career-high 30 points and Sandfort added a career-high 24 in the rout for the 8-3 Hawkeyes.

Early in the game, one of a dozen or two SEMO fans parked not too far from the Redhawks’ bench yelled “Fifty-eight-point-three percent!” at Rebraca has he sized up a free throw, referring to the senior big man’s foul-shooting this season.

“I heard him,” Rebraca said. “Fifty-eight percent from the line, the worst in my college career. I was like, ‘This guy.’ ”

Rebraca pointed at the fan after making the second of the two shots, then proceeded to rip the fan’s team asunder. He made all but one of his 13 field goal attempts, topped his previous college-high at North Dakota by four points and his Iowa-best by eight, and added a career-best six assists.

“Just being aggressive also opens shots for my teammates,” Rebraca said.

Asked if the points-high or the assists-high took precedence in his mind, he said “I feel very happy about both.”

Rebraca has filled a big part of the void in the 3-game absence of injured Kris Murray, who averages team-highs of 19.4 points and 10.1 rebounds.

“I want him to be on the court with me,” Rebraca said, “but when he’s not out there I have to be aggressive. I feel like I’m doing the right things, and I know I can continue to do these things.”

Rebraca has made 25 of 31 field goal attempts and averaged 20.3 points with Murray sidelined with a foot issue. Sandfort, however, had been struggling mightily.

The sophomore wing from Waukee got off to a nice start this season with games of 13 and 17 points, but things had been cold after that. He made just 3 of 29 3-pointers and 25.6 percent of his field goals in the last eight games.

Sandfort missed his first three Saturday, but scored on a drive with 8:21 left in the first half for his first points. That was the start of him scoring 17 of his team’s next 19 points, including a pair of 3-pointers.

When he sank the first of those threes, he did a mighty fist bump with a smile.

“It’s been a tough stretch,” said Sandfort, who made 9 of 13 shots. “A lot of rough nights, but I just continued to put in the work, and that’s not going to stop. Regardless of the outcome, I’m not going to change who I am or what I do.”

Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery always reminds people Sandfort is far more than a shooter, lauding the player’s rebounding, passing and defense. Through Sandfort’s cold spell, he was never discouraged from shooting.

“He’ll never trust his talent if he doesn’t think his coach does,” McCaffery said. “I just told him I know how good he is, it’s going to happen, just keep grinding.”

Sandfort’s teammates clearly found joy in the joy he got from putting the ball in the hoop.

“The biggest thing I had to get back to was playing like it was a game again,” Sandfort said. “I made it too stressful on myself and put too much pressure on myself. It makes the game really hard.

“I love all my teammates, all my coaches. No one’s dropped their head about me.”

Iowa’s next game is against Eastern Illinois (3-9) here Wednesday at 7 p.m.

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