By: Brian Hall
MINNEAPOLIS — Luka Garza scored 24 points and Ryan Kreiner added 10 points and No. 21 Iowa came back to beat the Minnesota Gophers 58-55 on Sunday.
Minnesota’s Daniel Oturu missed the front end of a one-and-one free-throw attempt with a chance to tie the game with 3.8 seconds left and the Hawkeyes (18-8, 9-6) came away with a rare road win in the Big Ten.
Iowa trailed by eight points with 5:25 remaining but finished the game on an 11-0 run. The Gophers had five of their 13 turnovers during the final stretch.
Oturu scored 15 points and Marcus Carr added 10 points, eight rebounds and six assists for Minnesota. Gabe Kalscheur 12, but the Gophers (12-12, 6-8) lost for the fourth time in five games.Garza was in foul trouble throughout. But Kreiner, in just his fourth start of the year with CJ Frederick out with an ankle injury, and Connor McCaffrey helped Iowa come back. McCaffrey scored all six of his points in the second half.
Bakari Evelyn hit a pair of free throws with 1:15 remaining to give the Hawkeyes a 57-55 lead, its first since leading 21-20 in the first half. The 58 points are the lowest total of the season for Iowa.
POLL IMPLICATIONS
Iowa should stay ranked after going 1-1 on the road during the week. While No. 23 Creighton won twice, including against No. 10 Seton Hall, No. 22 Illinois lost twice. Texas Tech at No. 24 and No. 25 LSU lost their only games of the week.
BIG PICTURE
Iowa: Road wins in the Big Ten are hard to come by and the Hawkeyes boosted their NCAA standing. They started the day 30th in the NCAA NET rankings, the primary tool used to determine the NCAA brackets and picked up their sixth Quad 1 win of the season on the road against Minnesota, ranked No. 40 in the NET rankings.
Minnesota: The Gophers missed a big chance to boost their tournament credentials and they are running out of time for more impressive wins. Minnesota lost its second home game in Big Ten play and now might need to beat Maryland at home on Feb. 26 or Wisconsin or Indiana on the road.
UP NEXT
Iowa returns home for one game against Ohio State on Thursday night. The Hawkeyes then go back on the road at Michigan State on Feb. 25.
Minnesota will look to bolster its tournament standing with another home game on Wednesday against Indiana.
*Courtesy Associated Press
