Hawkeye men’s basketball team rallies to defeat Washington, 85-79

IOWA CITY — Riley Mulvey had scored a total of two points in the previous 30 days. Carter Kingsbury hadn’t played more than 16 minutes in any game of his college career.

Saturday, the two seldom-used Iowa men’s basketball players were vital in their team’s 85-79 comeback win over Washington at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

It didn’t hurt that their longtime pal, senior forward Payton Sandfort, had a 20-point second half for a game-high 27. Sandfort, however, passed the kudos to the two guys who joined the Hawkeyes the same season he did.

“They were huge,” Sandfort said. “They’ve been on scout team most of the year, but they’re great teammates. They get us better.”

Mulvey and Kingsbury, two fourth-year juniors, pumped life into a team that never led until 8:51 remained in the game. Mulvey, a center, had nine points in 15 minutes. Kingsbury, a 6-foot-5 guard, played 29 minutes, defended tenaciously against far-larger 6-8, 250-pound Washington forward Great Osobor.

Iowa, which trailed by 12 points midway through the first half, improved to 15-12 overall, 6-10 in the Big Ten. Washington slipped to 13-14, 4-12.

A moment that stood out was when Kingsbury sank a 3-pointer for Iowa late in the first half as part of an 8-0 run that cut Washington’s lead to 34-33 at the break. His father, Chris Kingsbury, made 228 threes in three seasons at Iowa. This was just Carter’s seventh as a Hawkeye, but a big one it was.

Another moment Mulvey took a charge in the lane with 16:12 left in the game. Washington’s 6-foot-11, 253-pound Franck Kepnang drove down the paint with ferocity and threw down a powerful dunk over Mulvey. However, Iowa’s guy stood his ground to get the basket canceled on a charging call and get the crowd of 10,393 charged up.

“All I saw was somebody who was not going to do anything besides go to the basket and try to dunk it,” Mulvey said, “so I just stood right in the way.”

Yet another moment: Sandfort banked in a 3-pointer with 9:13 left as the shot clock expired after taking a pass from Kingsbury after the former walk-on made a football type of play in catching a high cross-court in-bounds pass from Pryce Sandfort deep in the shot clock.

“Get up and get it,” is what Kingsbury said he thought at the time, “Just give (Payton Sandfort) the ball in his hands.”

And the bank shot on the fly, which tied the game?

“It seems like the whole season, all we’ve seen is teams bank in threes,” Sandfort said. “We got our own. After that, I think everyone started having fun. We kind of loosened up and everyone started making plays again.

He insisted “I screamed out ‘Bank!’ and everybody heard me.”

Sandfort added three more points 22 seconds later when he was fouled in the act of shooting a 3-pointer and made each free throw. That gave Iowa its first lead of the game.

Iowa broke a 66-66 tie with 5:19 left and led the rest of the game. It was Fran McCaffery’s 200th home win as the Hawkeyes’ coach.

The Hawkeyes’ next game is Tuesday at Illinois, at 8 p.m.

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