Trailing by 10 late in the opening half the 14th ranked Iowa Hawkeyes outscored Minnesota 61-30 the rest of the way in a 94-73 win in Iowa City Sunday. The Hawkeyes trailed by two at the break but turned it up defensively in the second half. “A number of times we had a pretty good defensive possession only to give up a second shot. They got too many second shots in the second half, that would be the one thing that would a negative,” according to Iowa coach Fran McCaffery.
Minnesota made five of eight from three point range in the opening half but missed all eight from behind the arc in the second half. McCaffery says they closed out better on defense in the second half, which he says was hard to do against them.
Iowa got a big lift from Josh Oglesby, who finished with 17 points and Gabe Olaseni had 12 points and seven rebounds. “I just try and bring energy every time I step on the court. I think I did that today, I’m just happy we got the win,” Olaseni says.
Olaseni says he tried not to let up at all, as he says the coaches emphasized the need to keep running up and down the court.
Iowa improves to 4-1 in the Big Ten and 15-3 overall. Next up is a visit to Michigan on Wednesday night.