Penn State scored the first basket of the game, but from there it was all Iowa as the Hawkeyes defeated the Nittany Lions FINAL in Iowa City, Iowa Tuesday night.
Iowa sprinted to a lead as big as 17 points in the first half courtesy of the Hawkeye offense gashing Penn State in the pant and driving the lane.
That resulted in the Nittany Lions playing in fight mode throughout the game as they worked to cut down the deficit.
Penn State did manage to cut the lead to two with 17:20 left in the game, but a technical on Ace Baldwin would flip momentum back to the Hawkeyes as their lead ballooned once again.
The technical foul marked the second of the game with the first coming about midway through the first half with Mike Rhoades being on the receiving end for arguing with an official.
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This isn’t the first time Rhoades has been at odds with this crew as they were the ones who gave him his first at Penn State in January against Northwestern.
It did seem to rally the troops for the Nittany Lions as they started their crawl back into the game.
Penn State was led by Qudus Wahab and RayQuawndis Mitchell who had 18 and 16 points respectively.
For as good as their performances were, they were no match for Iowa’s Payton Sandfort who recorded the first triple-double in Iowa history with his 26-point, 10-rebound and 10-assist performance.
The Hawkeyes also got 20 points from Josh Dix with 18 of those coming in the first half.
The Nittany Lions were thwarted by a stout defense from Iowa that limited their production and held them to only four made threes during the game. It was a far cry from their first matchup in which Penn State drained 12 from beyond the arc.
It is on to Minnesota for the Nittany Lions as they look to get back in the win column and rise in the standings ahead of the Big Ten tournament against the Golden Gophers.
