Utah State 77, Iowa 69: Live and Die by the Three

KANSAS CITY — Iowa fell to Utah State in the NABC Hall of Fame Classic on Friday night, 77-69. Although sophomore point guard Brock Harding had the best game of his career to date, Iowa’s inability to hit the three and get rebounds sunk the Hawkeyes in the non-conference matchup.

Here are three takeaways from Iowa’s first loss of the season.

On the evening, Iowa was out-rebounded 47-31. Sophomore big Owen Freeman was the lone Hawkeye to reach double figures on the glass, finishing with 11.

“It’s going to be hard to win with that number,” Fran McCaffery said postgame. “We did go small a couple times. That was a decision we made to get more shooters out there and get the ball moving a little bit. We have to do a better job there.”

Team captain Payton Sandfort took the brunt of the responsibility on his shoulders for the lack of numbers on the boards.

“We’ve got to be more physical with our box-outs,” Sandfort said. “It starts with me. I thought Owen did a good job rebounding. I’ve got to give him some help. All around it wasn’t good enough.”

Likely a factor in the contest as well, power forward and manhattan transfer Seydou Traore only played 4:31 of the final 20 minutes after contributing 12:53 in the first half.

“I thought he was good in the first half,” McCaffery said. “In the second half, he couldn’t quite get it going. We’ll look at it.”

Iowa missed Traore defensively in the second half as well, as he often fronts the three-quarter press. The Hawkeyes were outscored 44-32 after the break.

It’s no secret that Iowa relies heavily on the three-ball. On Friday night, the Hawkeyes shot 5-26 (19%) from deep. They finished 28-64 (43.8%) from the field and 8-16 (50%) from the free throw line, as well.

“I don’t think we took many bad (shots),” McCaffery said. “I think Payton might have forced one, but other than that, everyone was open. I’d tell them to shoot it again.”

Harding believed the performance was a fluke, too.

“When you’re a team that shoots a lot of threes, you’re going to have times you don’t make shots,” he said. “I think as a team — we talked about it — when we’re not making shots, we have to pick that up on the defensive end and on the glass. If we’re not making shots, we also can’t get out-rebounded, can’t miss free throws. It’s little things like that matter in close games against good teams like tonight.”

Second-leading scorer and the team-leader in three-point attempts, Sandfort finished 1-13 from three on the evening.

“I just wasn’t good enough,” Sandfort said following the loss. “If I’m myself tonight, we win. I take 100% responsibility for it.”

After the game, Sandfort spoke to the media with an ice wrap on his right wrist — his shooting hand. He injured his wrist in Iowa’s win over Washington State.

“I really haven’t done anything practical-wise,” he said. “It’s the ligaments, but it’s not an excuse. I’ll figure it out.”

He said the injury is currently affecting him off the court as well.

“I just can’t really do much, in life or in basketball right now,” he said. “I’ve got to be able to make those shots anyway.”

Between effort plays on the defensive end and scoring a career high 19 points on 8-of-15 shooting and added five steals and four assists.

“He was terrific,” McCaffery said. “He really attacked the zone, attacked the pressure. I thought he played great defense, shot it well and loaded up his teammates. You look at his still and assist numbers — if he shot it better, he probably would’ve been in double-digit assists. I’m really proud of him.”

Although Sandfort was hard on himself, he was happy to praise the sophomore point guard.

“He played really well,” Sandfort said. “He brought a spark of energy. When no one else could do anything offensively, he made a lot of really good plays. I think you’ll see that from him the rest of the year.”

The zone being spread out afforded Harding some opportunities that he may not typically have.

“They run that matchup zone, and we have a lot of shooters, so everything kind of spread out,” Harding said. “We hit a couple shots, we didn’t shoot it great, but they still have to respect the three. Driving lanes were open. It was easy to get into the paint, distribute, floaters — different stuff like that.”

UP NEXT: The Hawkeyes will take on USC-Upstate (2-5) on Tuesday, November 26 at 7 pm in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The game will be broadcast on Big Ten Network.

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