John Tonje scored a game high 22 points Saturday and no. 21 Wisconsin gathered during the second half for a 74-63 Big Ten Conference Road victory over Iowa in Iowa City.
Tonje did his most important injury late in the second half and scored seven straight points to help Wisconsin turn a one-point deficit into a 65-59 lead with 5:44 to go. He added two free throws with 1:57 left that did it 70-63. John Blackwell met a jumper at the next possession for a nine -point advantage that mainly cinched a seasonal sweep.
Blackwell added 19 points for Badgers (19-5, 9-4), which preserved 12 of 35 3-point attempts and received a 42-38 advantage on the glass. More importantly, they defended well during the second half and held the explosive Hawkeyes to 24 points on 8-AV-27 shooting (29.6 percent) from the field.
Pryce Sandfort scored 14 points from the bench for Iowa (13-10, 4-8), which made only 24 of 63 attempts from the field and was held 22 points below average per game. Josh Dix added 13 points and Drew Thelwell was good for 11 points.
Payton Sandfort, Hawkeye’s leading goal scorer with Owen Freeman (Finger Surgery) sided for the year, hit only 2 out of 11 shots in 34 minutes and handled seven points, nine below his average (16.3).
The main story that entered this was whether Iowa could give a more competitive effort than it handled on January 3 in Wisconsin, where it blew out 116-85 which Badger’s preserved a school record 21 3-points.
During the first half, the answer was a definite yes. None of the team led by more than six points – Hawkeyes opened a 19-13 edge at the mark 11:23 – and there were eight bands and five management changes.
Wisconsin again lit it from 3-point intervals, which made 7-off-17 during the first half, but was unusually sloppy with the ball. Badgers committed six sales and Iowa used nine points. Hawkeyes also got 11 points from Pryce Sandfort, whose jumper with three seconds left fell the hosts to a 39-37 half-time leadership.
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