Iowa 90, Penn State 81: Sandfort Seals Hawkeyes First-Ever Triple-Double

IOWA CITY -- Payton Sandfort put together the first-ever triple-double in program history on Tuesday night, leading Iowa to the 90-81 win over Penn State.

Here are three takeaways from the victory.

Not BJ Armstrong, not Ricky Davis, not Matt Gatens, not Aaron White, not Luka Garza, not Joe Wieskamp, not Jordan Bohannon, not Keegan or Kris Murray. Payton Sandfort is the first-ever men's basketball player in Iowa history to finish a game with a triple-double.

The junior from Waukee put up 26 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for the Hawkeyes in the win. 18 of his 26 came at the free throw line.

"It's crazy no other Hawkeye has done it. Well, I mean I see Caitlin (Clark) do it every day, so that take away some of the legitimacy of it," he laughed. "But, I'm pretty proud. Being from this state, it's a pretty special thing to be the first one."

He didn't even know he was approaching the feat until late in the game.

"I thought I was close to a double-double, because I told one of our coaches I was going to get ten rebounds before the game," he said. "And then he was like 'Hey, one more rebound,' and so I was like 'Alright, I got you.' But then he said 'No, like get one more rebound.'"

Fran McCaffery was just as surprised as everyone else that this was the first time a men's hooper accomplished the feat at Iowa.

"I was shocked," he said. "You think about the great ones that played here -- the fact that that was the first one, I think that surprised everybody. For it to be Payton, who's such a terrific human being, and a great leader -- I'm thrilled for him."

Sandfort wasn't the only Hawkeye to achieve some career history on Tuesday evening, as Patrick McCaffery reached 1,000 career points.

"His journey has been so unique," Fran said. "When he was 14-years-old, we didn't know if he'd get two points. We didn't know if he'd be able to play his high school career. I'm just really proud of his perseverance, his attitude and his leadership on this team."

Ben Krikke also surpassed 2,000 career points between his time at Iowa and Valparaiso. Additionally, Josh Dix also came up just short of his career high in scoring of 21, pouring in 20 points for Iowa on the night.

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The Iowa offense completely stalled over the final eight minutes of the game.

From 8:22 to 58 seconds remaining, Penn State went on a 14-5 run. Throughout the season, whether or not Iowa wins is often determined by how they play in the final ten minutes. It was just enough on Tuesday, even though the offense was down in the dumps.

"I think we just get too stagnant," Sandfort said. "We kind of go away from our motion too much. I think everyone just gets a little tense, but that's going to happen. I think where we've had to improve is getting stops."

For Sandfort, it all comes down to the defense -- the success and the failures.

"We got a fair amount of stops tonight to stay in it," he continued. "At Illinois, at Penn State and at Maryland we couldn't get a stop, and we weren't scoring. So, that's where our improvement has to happen. Our offense is so good at getting defensive rebounds and pushing it. When we're not getting stops, we're slow and playing in the half court, so it's going to be a lot harder."

McCaffery agreed with the sentiment from Sandfort, and added that turnovers can't keep happening, either. The Hawkeyes finished with 12 turnovers on the night.

"We had some turnovers that should not have happened, and we all know that," he said. "Penn State is good at forcing them, certainly one of the best in our league at doing that. For the most part, the guys handled it okay."

Penn State head coach Mike Rhoades credited Iowa for their sense of urgency, saying it was how they were able pull off the wins they've been able to take home over the last month -- including how they defeated his Nittany Lions.

"I think late in the year, there's a little more urgency from teams," he said. "People know what they're playing for. They had that the other day, and they had it today. Today they had more urgency than us."

Iowa will need to maintain that urgency for the rest of the season, especially if they're to make a legitimate case for NCAA Tournament bid. With a 17-12 overall record and a 9-9 mark for eighth place in the Big Ten, the Hawkeyes could greatly use wins over Northwestern and Illinois to close the season.

Patrick McCaffery is well-aware of how desperately he and the Hawkeyes need that level of urgency to finish the season.

"We talk about urgency all the time," he said. "That's a big word that we use, and we don't always have it, to be quite honest."

Going forward, they'll focus on the game that's in front of them, and nothing more, hoping that sense of urgency sticks with them.

"All you can really do is just go one game at a time," McCaffery said. "You can't really look ahead. You couldn't talk about Northwestern and Illinois, because we had to beat Penn State. So, it doesn't really make a difference if we lost before. So, we just know that we have got to do what we can do and let the chips fall where they may."

Up next, the Hawkeyes will travel to Chicago to take on Northwestern (19-8, 10-6) on Saturday, March 2 at 4:30 PM CT on Big Ten Network.