IOWA CITY -- Iowa took the 89-74 victory over Southern on Thursday night to move to 2-0 in its non-conference schedule. Offensively, they were propelled by sophomore wing, Pryce Sandfort, who finished with career highs in scoring and three-pointers made.
Here are three takeaways from the victory for the Hawkeyes.
The Pryce is Right
In just over 28 minutes, Sandfort finished 8-10 from the field and 6-8 from three for 22 points. He started the evening 8-8 from the field and 6-6 from three.
The younger of the two Sandforts could tell it was going to be a special night at the end of the first half. With time dwindling down in the shot clock and the play floundering, sophomore point guard Brock Harding found Sandfort in the corner for a three-pointer to give him 11 points before the break to lead all scorers.
"It was a bounce pass at my feet," he said. "I went up, it felt really good and it was money."
Sandfort's hot hand must have been infectious, because all Harding did in the second half was keep the heater rolling, adding 11 more points on three triples and a two.
"He was unreal," sophomore center Owen Freeman said. "I'm really happy for him -- to be able to go out and perform the way he did. He's my roommate, so I'm going to be chirping his ear off."
The way Harding's played this season may be new to those who haven't seen him on the court since last winter, but it's not a shock to those on the bench.
"He's been playing like that since the summer," Fran McCaffery said postgame. "He's really been shooting the ball well and playing well at both ends."
Sandfort, who has largely credited his growth in confidence from a stretch on scout team last year, said it's been great for the work to finally culminate with this type of performance in front of fans in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
"It feels really good," he said. "I've pictured these moments in my head all throughout last year and in the offseason. Now that it's here, it feels really good that all that hard work paid off."
Thelwell Embracing his Role
For the second straight game, Drew Thelwell did exactly what he needed to in his reserve role. Though the grad transfer hasn't cracked the starting lineup in his short tenure with the Hawkeyes, he's made an impact on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.
"He was great. He just keeps getting better," McCaffery said. "He can put pressure on the ball, play defense and guard his man. What you're seeing is a guy that, little-by-little, keeps gaining confidence in what we're doing, being here and playing with the guys here."
Coming from Morehead State, Thelwell was an integral piece in an NCAA Tournament run, and he finished his tenure there as the all-time winningest player in program history. McCaffery has been impressed with how he's acclimated to being a Hawkeye.
"He's bought in," McCaffery said. "'Whatever minutes, I'm ready to go.' The better you play, the more minutes you earn."
Thelwell earned plenty of time against the Jaguars, seeing the floor for just over 25 minutes and scoring 12 points on 4-8 shooting from the field and 3-7 from distance. Though Thelwell didn't quite have a Pryce-like performance from deep, Sandfort was complimentary of his new teammate's shooting.
"Every time he shoots it, I think it's going in," Sandfort said. "He's a really good 3-point shooter. He's showing that now. It's good."
Thelwell is sharing the point guard role with Harding, as well. At 6'3", Thelwell stands roughly three inches taller than the sophomore from Moline, is a veteran of college basketball and brings a different skillset to the floor than Harding.
"They're both really good at facilitating and shooting," Sandfort said. "They're both really good defenders. We're good either way with them. If we want to have both of them out there at the same time, we can do that, too. I'm proud of how they've been playing."
Harding finished 1-2 from the floor for three points and six assists in just under 15 minutes.
Though we haven't seen it yet, the duo may share the floor soon.
"We'll see them playing together at times," McCaffery said. "That team was pressing, so we could've used another ball-handler out there."
Defensive Pride
Though it ultimately wasn't a factor, as Iowa led by as many as 24 with 4:31 to go, the Jaguars outscored Iowa 48-28 in points in the paint.
"We needed to be better on defense the whole game," McCaffery said. "[Southern] is very quick. There's a lot of athletic power. You have to guard off the bounce, ball-screen action and you've got to get back, because they're going to run. We have to understand that even if we have a lead, we still want to come down and get consecutive stops."
Freeman, who looked a tad down-trodden in the postgame presser due to the defensive performance, had a particular diagnosis.
"We need to take more pride in getting stops," he said. "We were up 24 and in Big Ten play, we might not be up 24. We could be down nine and those stops could be huge. We've got to think ahead to the future."
"They scored 22 out of 32 times in the second half, so that was not good."
Sandfort said the group talked about the defensive lapses in the locker room post game.
"It wasn't great. Those last six minutes were really bad," he said. "They started to get buckets, then we'd come down, go through the motions on offense and hoist a three. That's something we need to work on moving forward."
The Hawkeyes will have another opportunity adjust defensively on Tuesday next week, when they take on South Dakota (2-0). As part of the Kenny Arnold Classic, the Coyotes have played and defeated both Southern and Texas A&M Commerce, the two opponents the Hawkeyes have faced to start the season.
