Iowa 76, Rutgers 65

Iowa followed up a thrilling comeback win over #15 Indiana at home on Thursday night with an impressive road win over a red-hot Rutgers team, 76-65. The Hawkeyes led the Scarlet Knights wire-to-wire, the first time Rutgers has trailed the entire time in a home game in five years. In a welcome change from recent games (when Iowa started slow and found themselves in huge early deficits), Iowa started fast today -- and never looked back.

Iowa led 8-0 before Rutgers got their first points of the game. After Rutgers scored five points to get on the board and eat into Iowa's lead, the Hawkeyes responded with an 11-4 run to get the lead to 10 points at 19-9. The lead stayed around 8-12 points in favor of Iowa for much of the remainder of the first half, until a brief Rutgers run cut the lead to four points, 34-30, with just under four minutes to go in the half. Worse, Kris Murray had just picked up his second foul and was headed to the bench. It looked like Iowa's control of the game was slipping away -- so, naturally, they went on an 8-0 run to end the half and went into halftime up 42-30.

To put into context how remarkable that was:

* Iowa scored 46 points in the entire GAME at Rutgers last season; they scored 42 points in the first HALF this year.

* Only three opponents had scored more than 50 points against Rutgers at Jersey Mike's Arena this season.

* Rutgers entered today allowing just 55 points per game to opponents.

Iowa built that first half lead with strong shooting (51.6% from the floor), including going 5/13 (38%) from behind the three-point arc. They also limited turnovers reasonably well (just 7, or 19% of their possessions) and kept Rutgers off the glass fairly well. Iowa's defense, based around a 2-3 zone setup, caused problems for Rutgers as well -- they ended up settling for a lot of jump shots (which they mostly missed). Rutgers was also uncharacteristically bad at finishing around the rim (we can sympathize after Iowa's games against Nebraska and Penn State a week ago) and Iowa was able to take advantage.

Iowa started strong in the second half as well, using a 12-6 run to open up an 18-point lead on Rutgers just five minutes into the half. Unfortunately, Iowa's offense went in the deep freeze for a while at that point -- Rutgers outscored Iowa 14-1 over the next 6:30 of game time as Iowa stopped making shots and started turning the ball over frequently against a Rutgers defense that ramped up the pressure (and benefited from a very let-them-play attitude from the officials). After Rutgers cut Iowa's lead to five points with just under nine minutes remaining, all the momentum seemed to be in favor of the Scarlet Knights.

And then Payton Sandfort took over. Sandfort scored Iowa's next 11 points on 4/4 shooting (3/3 from deep) over the next four minutes, helping Iowa not just maintain its lead, but grow it (to 66-55 with five minutes to play). Iowa fans have waited a while to see this version of Sandfort show up in an Iowa game and it was a joy see him firing away and draining shots all over the court in this game. Despite his horrific shooting slump earlier this season, Sandfort is a good shooter and it was great to see that come through in a game, especially one in which Iowa badly needed scoring from someone other than Kris Murray or Filip Rebraca.

A Connor McCaffery three-pointer gave Iowa a 69-57 lead with four minutes to play. Rutgers had another run in them and cut Iowa's lead to six with a minute remaining, but Iowa went 5/7 at the free throw line down the stretch, including 3/4 from Sandfort to ice the victory.

The star of the game was, of course, Payton Sandfort. He finished with 22 points on 6/8 shooting from the floor (4/5 from 3-point range) and 6/7 shooting at the free throw line. 14 of his 22 points came in the second half; when Iowa was looking for points from anyone in a black jersey, he stepped up and answered the call. He also had 5 rebounds, a steal, a block, and an assist in 22 minutes -- if he can continue his form from the last few games, he can be a much-needed sparkplug for Iowa off the bench.

Rebraca was also very good in this game, recording his seventh double-double of the season with 16 points and 12 rebounds. He had a little trouble finishing against Rutgers' length (he was just 5/12 from the floor) but he kept attacking and found ways to help Iowa even when his shot wasn't falling (6/9 at the free throw line, 3 blocks on defense). He also managed to play the full 40 minutes, which is huge for an Iowa team that's very thin in post players.

Murray had a quiet game by his recent standards, but still finished with 17 points and 7 rebounds on 7/11 shooting. It's also good to see that Iowa can win a Big Ten game without needing Murray to explode for 30+ games. Ahron Ulis had ups and downs against Rutgers -- he was a little too loose with the ball (4 turnovers) and shot just 2/8 from the field -- but the two shots he did make were big and he also made two key free throws late. His +11 in plus/minus was also tied for best on the team. Connor McCaffery had only 6 points (2/6 shooting), but he was back to being an ace distributor, with 8 assists against one turnover. He also looked a bit shaken up after a scary collision late in the game, but hopefully it was nothing serious.

A three-game losing streak to Eastern Illinois, Nebraska, and Penn State dealt a pretty big blow to Iowa's NCAA Tournament aspirations -- and dropped them to 8-6 on the season and 0-3 in the Big Ten. Well, now they're 11-6 on the season, 2-3 in the Big Ten and they're coming off a home win over a AP Top 15 Indiana team and a road win over a Rutgers team ranked in the Top 15 of the NET rankings. We'll have to see how the rest of the season shakes out, but it certainly feels like those are two wins that should hold up well for Iowa when March rolls around. Now Iowa returns home for three straight home games against Michigan, Maryland, and Northwestern, more opportunities to add to the W column and strengthen that potential postseason resume. Iowa still has a lot of work to do, but the last two games have been a very good start.

Iowa heads back to Iowa City to welcome Michigan to Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Thursday, January 12 (6:00 PM CT, ESPN2). The Wolverines are 9-6 overall and 3-1 in Big Ten action, coming off a 59-53 loss to Michigan State yesterday.