The score was not what most of the game was all about.
There were eight lead changes, and it was tied seven times.
Iowa and Northwestern fought tooth and nail until about 5:21 left in the second half with Iowa leading 69-63. The Hawks closed it out outscoring the Cats 17-7 and won their 15th game of the season.
Iowa is 6-5 in the Big Ten.
Payton Sandfort highlighted that finish hitting a 3-pointer, was fouled and made the free throw.
Northwestern was called for a technical and Payton drained both free throws.
Payton, who came off the bench, scored 14 of his team high 20 points in the second half. He was 6-8 from the floor including 5-7 from three and led the team with five assists.
“The thing about Payton is he moves so well without the ball,” said Fran McCaffery. “He’s easy to find.”
This is the same Payton that went 3-29 from three in a nine-game stretch early in the season.
Payton had plenty of help with Filip Rebraca getting a double-double scoring 20 points with 10 boards.
Filip has a team best nine double-doubles.
Kris Murray had 16, Tony Perkins 12 and Conner McCaffery 11.
When the Hawks shoot 47% (10-21) from three, they are a tough team to beat as four Hawkeyes made at least one 3-pointer.
Iowa 81 Illinois 79
It’s always nice to beat the Fighting Illini, especially in basketball.
Illinois had a four-game winning streak going and had a 90-76 advantage in the series coming into the game.
Last year Illinois swept the Hawks 87-83 in Iowa City and 74-72 in Champaign. There were nine lead changes, nine ties and Tony Perkins.
Tony came into the game averaging 10.6 points per game.
The 6-4 junior was shooting 40% from the floor, 33% from three, 72% from the free throw line, 55 assists (second on the team) and is tied with Conner McCaffery with 29 steals.
Against Illinois, Tony was 8-11 from the floor, 1-2 from three and 15-16 from the free throw line.
The junior from Indiana made 15 straight which tied Andre Woolridge for most consecutive free throws made in a single game.
Talk about being in a zone.
“Tony was specular,” said coach Fran. “Everybody recognized Tony was hot. They are calling out plays for Tony. That’s the unselfishness we have. It’s really appreciated by the coaches.
Kris Murray and Filip Rebraca had 19 and 13 respectively but the Hawkeyes making 26-30 (86.7%) from the free throw line was the difference.
A loud sold-out Carver crowd didn’t hurt.
Hawkeye Women
Iowa hosted Maryland winning 96-82 and traveled to Penn State last week.
Before Iowa’s victory over No. 8 Maryland last week at Carver, the Terrapins had a 10-4 record against the Hawkeyes. Maryland came into the game with a four-game winning streak with victory margins of 34, 18, 20 and 12.
How did Iowa beat the Terrapins?
The Hawks won by playing one of their best first haves of the year.
Iowa came out firing shooting 64% in the first half leading 56-38 halftime lead.
The Hawks shot 61.7% (37-60) for the game.
Caitlin Clark, Monica Czinano and Hannah Stuelke combined to shoot 32-42 (76%) from the floor.
Caitlin finished with 42 points, her 6th career 40-point game, eight assists and seven rebounds.
She started strong scoring 24 in the first half and finishing strong with 13 in the 4th quarter,
Monica was 14-18 from the floor scoring 28.
Hannah was 5-5 from the floor, 3-7 from the free-throw line for 13 points in only 16 minutes.
It was good to see McKenna Warnock back in the starting lineup after missing the last two game because of an injury. McKenna is shooting 43.5% from three which is tied with Kate Martin as the best for the Hawks.
“Any time you get a top ten win that’s just huge,” said Lisa Bluder. “It’s great for our program. Caitlin was spectacular today. Monica was unbelievable. Between the two of them, they shot 73% from the field. We had 27 assists on 37 baskets, our bench came in and scored 20 points, but our 3-point defense was really a key today.”
Maryland came into the game shooting 38% from three.
They shot 11.1% (2-18) against the Hawks.
I have to give a little credit to the fans.
Since the Big Ten season started, Iowa has averaged over 10,000 fans per game with a high of 13,843 against Nebraska and they are loud and proud.
Iowa 95 Penn State 51
When all the Hawkeyes play and only two don’t score, you know it’s a good day for team chemistry.
Caitlin Clark was as excited to see Taylor McCabe hit back-to-back 3-pointers on passes from Caitlin as she was when she notched her ninth triple-double (23 points, 14 assists and 10 rebounds).
Did you watch after the game when Caitlin was treated like Elvis?
She was surrounded by kids and adults, and she was signing a lot of autographs.
One young lady had a sign that said
“I drove 450 miles to watch Caitlin.”
“Can I get a selfie?”
She did.
That is pretty cool to be treated like that at a road game.
Iowa had 58 paint points, Penn State 18.
Monica (7-10 from the floor) had 14 of those and Hannah Stuelke nine.
The Hawks shot 59% from the floor.
Hawkeye Wrestling
The Hawks bounced back after their first loss to Penn State last week.
2nd ranked Iowa beat Minnesota 18-13 with the Hawkeyes wrestling three freshmen at 174, 184 and heavyweight.
All three lost but got some good experience wrestling under the bright lights.
Spencer Lee got the match started with a 7-1 decision over sixth-ranked Patrick McKee.
That is Spencer’s 50th win in a row and the first match this year he didn’t get bonus points.
Brody Teske, 133 got a takedown with ten seconds left to win a 4-3 decision.
2nd ranked Real Woods picked up his 11th win with an 8-1 decision at 141.
Sixth-ranked Max Murin picked up an 11-7 decision at 149.
Both Cobe Siebrecht and Patrick Kennedy got decisions at 157 and 165.
Patrick, who was a four-time state champion growing up in Minnesota, used five takedowns to win 13-8.
“I felt good with the effort,” said Patrick who is 14-2. “I went out and scored points. It felt great to get a win in Minnesota.”
That was the last Iowa win.
The Hawks have two more matches until the Big Ten Championships held in Ann Arbor on March 4th and 5th.
Iowa needs to step it up if they want to win their 36th Big Ten Championship.

Gallery • 2 Photos

Stephen Mally/hawkeyesports.com • Contributed Photo

From left – Josh Ogundele, Ahron Ulis, and Tony Perkins celebrate after winning their game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena Saturday, Feb. 4.