Iowa 76, Penn State 75: Saved by the Bell, Thelwell's 1K

IOWA CITY — After dropping three straight games, Iowa (13-7, 4-5) got back in the win column on Friday night with a 76-75 win over Big Ten rival Penn State (13-7, 3-6).

Behind a strong first half and Drew Thelwell’s renewed, rejuvenating energy that resulted in him reaching the 1,000 career points mark, the Hawkeyes pulled off their first win in nearly two weeks.

Here are Three Takeaways from the win.

Prior to the win over the Nittany Lions, The Hawkeyes were 3-1 in games in which they led after 10 minutes and 0-4 in contests where they trailed at that point. Iowa was also 2-0 when leading at halftime in Big Ten games this season and 1-5 when trailing at halftime.

Somebody must’ve shared that stat with the team prior to the game. The Hawkeyes trailed for just 2:11 of the entire contest.

“It felt good,” Payton Sandfort said following the win. “The crowd got into it, they brought a lot of energy. It felt good to see some shots go in and get some stops.”

The last few days leading up to the contest with PSU were extremely important for the guys to come out with a purpose.

“I thought we played hard,” Fran McCaffery said after the game. “We had some consistency defensively, they’re not an easy team to guard. … We got enough stops when we needed them.”

The fast start helped take the weight of the three-game skid off the shoulders of the players.

“Any time you’re going through something like that, it feels unbelievably hard to get the next one,” Sandfort said. “It’s always important to do it. … We’ve got to find a way, and we did that.”

“You learn from [the losses] and you just come back and prepare,” McCaffery added. These guys did a pretty good job winning. The guys that are here. They know how to win. … So we’re just on to the next.

A significant piece of Iowa’s winning efforts in the first and second halves was Thelwell, who scored the first six points of the night for the Hawkeyes and had an incentive to bounce back following his poor performance in the loss to Minnesota on Tuesday, which saw him score just two points on 1-of-7 shooting

“He was terrific tonight,” McCaffery said. “He was really down the other night. … He was locked in in practice for this one. He played great.”

He scored 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting, tying Owen Freeman for the team lead in scoring, and also added five rebounds four assists and two steals against the Nittany Lions.

“[The Minnesota] game is over and done with,” Thelwell said of his mindset during the week. “Move onto the next one. We have a lot of games left — just take a mature approach about it.”

If there’s anyone on this roster who can take a mature approach, It’s Thelwell who has won more than 100 games in his college career and who reached 1,000 career points on a three-pointer with 15:05 left in the second half.

“I’m thrilled for him. It’s an incredible accomplishment and really hard to do,” McCaffery said. “I was probably more impressed with his 100 career wins. That shows what his character is.”

Right in line with what McCaffery’s postgame sentiment, Thelwell was more excited about the win than the career scoring milestone.

“I’ve got to give glory to God,” the Morehead State transfer and fifth-year senior said. “It’s been a long journey. I’ve got to thank my dad — he woke me up so many times in high school, middle school and sacrificed his time. He and my mom. To end it on a win is even better.”

And it was barely a win at that.

Over the final four minutes of the game, Iowa was outscored 10-2. Despite Iowa holding a nine-point lead with just under four minutes left in the game, Penn State got the deficit within one with under a minute remaining.

“I thought we played pretty good defense,” Sandfort said. “It came down to free throws. We had a ton of free throws, that if we make them, we probably win by seven or nine. That’s how it goes sometimes.”

The Hawkeyes shot 1-of-7 from the stripe in the second half.

“Oh, boy,” Thelwell said. “Yeah, [missing free throws] was contagious. We’ve got to be better at that. That starts with me, but we’ve got to be better as a team.”

McCaffery was hoping for his team to extend the lead as well, but even though that didn’t come to fruition, they were still able to pull off the win.

“We couldn’t seemingly get it from 10 to 15,” he said. “Give [Penn State] credit for continuing to come like they did. … I feel bad for our guys who played so hard and so well. When you miss your free throws, you tend to really internalize and blame yourself.”

It wasn’t just free throws, though.

“We did have two bad possessions that I would like to have back,” he added. “And that’s not on them. That’s on me. We ran the clock down. And Payton took a jumper and Josh (Dix) took a jumper. We’re in the bonus. Probably should have drove the ball on something different. But I trust those two guys. So they can shoot it whenever they want.”

NEXT: Iowa will travel to Columbus on Monday next week to take on Ohio State (11-8, 3-5) at 7 pm CT. The game will be broadcast on FS1.

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