MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Brandon Johnson made all four 3-point attempts in overtime and ended up with 26 points and nine rebounds, leading Minnesota to beat 4th Iowa 102-95 on Friday night.
Marcus Carr had 30 points out of 6 out of 13 3-point shots and eight assists, and Liam Robbins added 18 points and four blocks for the Gophers (8-1, 1-1 Big Ten). They lost by seven points with 44 seconds to go and beat the Hawkeyes by 29-15 the rest of the way.
Luka Garza had 32 points from 11 of 27 shots and 17 rebounds for the Hawkeyes (7-2, 1-1), who allowed 99 points in his first loss last week to No. 1 Gonzaga. CJ Fredrick scored 23 points and Joe Wieskamp added 14 points and nine rebounds, but a 55-38 rebound advantage was not enough for Iowa to overcome the 3-ball flurry of Johnson Johnson’s 6-foot-8 forward
Carr backtracked 3 points with 31 seconds left to take Minnesota 81-78.
Joe Toussaint, who made his other four free-throw attempts in the final minute of regulation, missed two false kicks. Next, Carr hit the 3-point draw with 5.7 seconds remaining, bringing players from the Gophers bench jumping onto the court.
Then the extra session became Johnson’s time to shine, starting with Minnesota’s first ball possession when he landed his wing kick just 13 seconds. Robbins, who had his hands full protecting the country’s top scorer in Garza, added the 3-point dagger 27 seconds remaining in overtime to a 98-91 lead after the Gophers broke the Iowa press.
This game would have produced one of the most electrifying atmospheres of the season at Williams Arena, had it not been for the pandemic that kept the gates closed and prompted the Big Ten to schedule it along with three other conference competitions for television programming on Christmas Day.
Iowa has not played on the December 25 holiday since 1988. Minnesota found no record of any organized sporting events played by the school on Christmas Day.
Carr, who joined Garza on the pre-season 10-player All-Big Ten team, scored 15 points in the first half. His 3-point basket with 3:22 remaining before the break gave the Gophers the biggest advantage of the game at 35-23, but Wieskamp – who made 3 to 13 from the ground – made one of his biggest contributions with a 3 point in the last possession of the Hawkeyes in half to reduce the gap to five points.
At the start of the second half, a pair of 3 points from Fredrick and one from Garza to trigger a 10-0 spurt by the Hawkeyes for a 45-40 lead. Garza started to swallow the rebounds and turn them into returns, and Iowa seemed to be in control.
Garza made just 2 of 11 to five points in the first half, chased by an extra trap defender like Eric Curry and Sam Freeman contributed a post-vital defense when Robbins sat down with problems. Still, Garza easily extended his streak by more than 20 points to 18 consecutive Big Ten games.
BIG PICTURE
Iowa: The Hawkeyes relied on defense to beat Purdue 70-55 earlier this week, but that was gone when they needed it most in Minnesota.
Minnesota: This Big Ten meat grinder start, with the first eight conference games against opponents currently ranked in the Associated Press’s Top 25, is giving Gophers a test as a coach Richard Pitino had in eight seasons. This was just the victory they needed to gain confidence for the next two weeks.