The Iowa Hawkeyes made sure to reward the fans that braved the weather and made the trek to Carver-Hawkeye Arena on a frigid, wintry Friday night.
Iowa (10-6, 2-3 Big Ten) got off to a fantastic start, watched it dwindle away and then revved the engines back up and raced away in order to close out an impressive 94-76 win over a good Nebraska team.
Iowa dropped the Huskers to 13-4 (3-3 Big Ten) as six different Hawkeyes finished in double figures, including all five starters.
Let’s dive into the big takeaways from Iowa’s win over Nebraska. Just like they did in their first Big Ten win over Rutgers, the Hawkeyes came out roaring against the Huskers. Junior forward Payton Sandfort and redshirt senior forward Patrick McCaffery combined for 13 points and a trio of made 3-pointers in the game’s first six minutes as Iowa leapt out to a 17-2 lead.
It looked early like the rout might be on. Iowa was getting whatever it wanted offensively and was knocking down shots. As the Hawkeyes kept finding the bottom of the net, Nebraska couldn’t buy a bucket. The Huskers started 1-of-8 from the floor, including 0-for-4 from downtown.
Nebraska settled in, though. The Huskers got a lift from their bench. In particular, freshman guard Eli Rice gave Nebraska a jumpstart. He scored nine points in the first half despite entering the evening averaging just 3.8 points per game. Nebraska had 19 bench points at halftime. Iowa couldn’t keep Nebraska out of the paint either. The Huskers scored 30 points in the paint.
Suddenly, Iowa’s 15-point lead was just 41-36 at halftime. A quick 12-6 run featuring made 3-pointers from Nebraska senior guard Keisei Tominaga and junior forward Rienk Mast had the Huskers with their first lead of the night.
After Nebraska grabbed its second lead of the night at 50-49 with 16:50 to play, Iowa absolutely rolled away from the Huskers. Iowa outscored Nebraska 45-26 from that point forward.—Agencies
