Iowa 81, Illinois 79: The Tony Perkins Game

Just call this the Tony Perkins Game. Thanks to a massive second-half effort from Perkins, Iowa ended a five-game losing streak to Illinois and completed a sweep of its three-game homestand with a thrilling 81-79 victory over Illinois that was as back-and-forth and thrilling as everyone hoped it might be. The win improved Iowa to 15-8 overall and 7-5 in Big Ten play, pulling them into a tie with Illinois for third-place in the Big Ten standings at the moment. This team is really clicking at the moment.

Illinois opened the game with a 7-3 run, but this was not a game where either team was able to get much separation. Whenever Iowa answered Illinois with a few buckets, the Illini were able to respond with mini-runs of their own. The end of the first half definitely tilted in favor of Illinois, though; after Iowa opened up a five-point lead at 27-22 with 7:27 to play in the half, Illinois went on a 14-2 run over the next six minutes of game time to open up a 35-29 lead. Iowa couldn't get stops, couldn't make shots, and couldn't grab rebounds. Nothing was working.

Things worked back in the Hawkeyes' favor in the final 80 seconds of the half, though -- Filip Rebraca ended Iowa's scoring drought with a bucket (plus an and-1) off a turnover and Kris Murray drained a 3-pointer as the first half ended. That helped Iowa cut the Illinois lead to just 36-35 heading into halftime.

The second half started on the same note, with Iowa using a quick 4-0 run to get a 39-36 lead less than a minute into the new half. Illinois responded with an 11-0 run as Iowa once again struggled to make shots or get stops.

That's when Tony Perkins started to take over the game. Iowa still wasn't able to convert field goals, but Perkins found an alternate path to scoring points: the free throw line. He drew shooting fouls on three consecutive possessions and drained all six free throws. The Iowa press forced a turnover that Kris Murray turned into a layup that cut the Illini lead to 49-47. Iowa was all the way back in the game.

The lid also (briefly) came off the Iowa bucket at that point, as Iowa followed Murray's make with back-to-back made shots from Perkins and Rebraca. After a few more empty possessions (turnover, missed shot, more Illinois offensive rebounds), Iowa was again down seven points, 62-55. Free throws to the rescue again, with a pair by Perkins followed by a pair from Murray. A quick Payton Sandfort 3-pointer after an Illini turnover tied the game.

After trading buckets for a few more minutes, Iowa finally took its first lead of the game since early in the second half with a pair of Perkins free throws with 6:25 to go. Iowa didn't trail the rest of the game (though Illinois did manage to tie the game three times). There was no separation to be had between these teams, but Iowa was able to keep making shots -- or free throws. After Perkins hit a jumper in the lane to give Iowa a 76-73 lead with 2:58 to go, Illinois' Matthew Mayer responded with a quick three-pointer to tie the game again.

Punch, counter-punch.

The key possession for Iowa came with under two minutes to play. After a Rebraca shot got blocked at the rim, Kris Murray hauled in the offensive rebound. The ball found its way to Payton Sandfort -- who made one of the biggest shots of his career to give Iowa a 79-76 lead with under 90 seconds to play. Sandfort made another big play a few moments later, blocking a shot by Terrence Shannon, Jr. to preserve Iowa's lead with 29 seconds left. Kris Murray made one of two free throws after that to give Iowa a four-point lead with the shot clock off.

Illinois made a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 80-78, but after a few timeouts and some clock-draining possessions on inbounds plays, Perkins went to the free throw line again -- and made one of two free throws. Iowa opted not to foul up three with 10 seconds to go, with Jayden Epps missing a three-point try to tie the game.

Coleman Hawkins got the rebound with just over a second remaining; down three, he had to make the first free throw, intentionally miss the second free throw, and hope Illinois could get the rebound and put-back in under two seconds. He made the first free throw and intentionally missed the second... but Connor McCaffery hauled in the rebound, clinching the victory.

Tony Perkins was the star of stars for Iowa in this game, especially in the second half. Perkins finished with a career-high 32 points in this game. He eclipsed his previous career-high (22 points against Maryland earlier this season) in the second half alone, as he had 25 points after halftime. Perkins went 5/6 from the floor and 15/16 at the free throw line in just the second half; he finished 8/11 overall from the field (and 15/16 at the line).

Perkins is a different player when his jump shot is falling (and it was today), but he also showed great assertiveness on the offensive end, attacking the rim again and again. That's what enabled him to draw so many fouls and attempt so many free throws. Of course, all those free throw attempts don't mean much if you can't convert them, but he was nearly perfect at the line. Perkins also had three rebounds, two assists, and two steals in what was just a truly excellent performance. He's been up and down at times this season, but he's never been any more up than he was today.

Kris Murray finished with 19 points on 5/11 shooting (2/6 from 3-point range) and 7 rebounds, along with three assists and two steals. It wasn't Murray's best game by any means, but he came through with big plays when necessary and provided the steady production that Iowa needed.

Filip Rebraca was the only other Iowa player in double-figures in scoring, with 13 points on 5/11 shooting. Rebraca definitely had his hands full against Illinois' talented front court -- the 5/11 stat line is a testament to that, as is the fact that he only had two rebounds in the game. That was a shockingly poor number for a player who's been Iowa's best rebounder all season, but too often in the game he seemed to be waiting for the ball to bounce to him instead of attacking the ball to claim a rebound. He did get a key defensive rebound on one of Illinois' final possessions, though, which proved critical.

Iowa out-scored Illinois 15-8 in bench points, with most of that coming from Payton Sandfort. Sandfort only finished with 9 points on 3/7 shooting (3/6 from long range), but he made some big shots in the game -- none bigger than the pressure-packed three-pointer he hit to give Iowa the lead late in the game. He also had six rebounds, two blocks, a steal, and an assist. Overall, he finished an astounding +21 in plus-minus in this game; Iowa was absolutely excellent when he was on the floor in this game... and very, very, very bad when he was on the bench.

If Iowa had lost this game, it would have been very easy to point to the reason why: rebounds, rebounds, rebounds. Illinois clobbered Iowa on the glass, finishing with a 37-26 overall advantage. The Illini had a 13-8 edge in offensive rebounds, which they parlayed into a 17-11 edge in second chance points. In a game where the margins were as razor-thin as this one, that edge for Illinois was significant.

The Illini are a good rebounding team, especially on the offensive glass, but Iowa simply needed better effort on the glass in this game. There were too many possessions where the Iowa player was waiting for the ball to bounce to them; by contrast, Illinois players were constantly moving toward the ball and the rim, not waiting for it to bounce to them.

This was an extremely foul-heavy game (22 called on Illinois, 21 on Iowa), but it didn't seem like an inconsistently-called game by the officials. The refs had a pretty tight whistle in this game, but it seemed to be applied fairly consistently to both teams. Both teams spent a lot of time at the free throw line, with Illinois going 18/23 from the stripe (well above their season average on free throw conversions, incidentally) and Iowa making 26/30 at the line.

Iowa made 22/25 free throws in the second half, which made up for some poor shooting from the field for the Hawkeyes (11/24 from the floor, 2/10 from the 3-point line). A huge number of those free throws were from Perkins (15/16) and most were the result of Perkins attacking the rim and drawing contact from Illinois defenders. That was a perfect gameplan with the rest of the Iowa offense struggling.

Iowa heads back on the road for its toughest game of the season -- at #1 Purdue on Thursday, February 9 at 6 PM CT (ESPN2). The Boilermakers are 22-2 overall and 11-2 in the Big Ten this season, suffering a loss at Indiana on Saturday afternoon to break a nine-game win streak in conference play.