IOWA CITY, Iowa — Payton Sandford hit five 3-pointers and scored 24 points, Ben Krikke had 19 points and 10 rebounds and Iowa defeated Rutgers 86-77 on Saturday.
The Big Ten Conference's best offense overcame the league's best defense as the Hawkeyes came in averaging 86.7 points per game and the Scarlet Knights were allowing 62.5.
Iowa starter Patrick McCaffery (9.7 ppg) was ill and missed the game where his dad surpassed former coach Tom Davis for the most Big Ten wins at the school with 127. Fran McCaffery is two shy of passing Davis' overall win total of 271.
Tony Perkins had 15 points and four steals for the Hawkeyes (9-5, 1-2) and Owen Freeman converted three three-point plays and scored 15.
Mawot Mag scored 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, both career highs, for the Scarlet Knights (8-6, 0-3). Austin Williams had 14 points and Jamichael Davis scored 10.
Both teams started the second half hot but only the Hawkeyes stayed that way. Sandfort hit a 3-pointer and Freeman converted two three-point plays and then had two free throws for a 66-52 lead with 12:16 to go.
Twice Rutgers got the deficit to nine, but Freeman had a dunk and Sandfort drilled a 3-pointer to make it 73-61.
Perkins had five points in a 7-0 run, with his dunk pushing the lead to 80-63 with 5:43 to play.
Sandfort was 4 of 5 on 3s in the second half when the Hawkeyes shot 54% overall. Iowa finished 7 of 14 behind the arc.
Rutgers finished 6 of 19 from distance (32%) and made 28 of 71 (39%) overall.
Mag hit a pair of 3-pointers in the final 22 seconds to pull Rutgers within 41-34 at halftime after they trailed by 16 with less than three minutes to go.
Sandfort had five points in an early 11-0 run that had the Hawkeyes up 13-3 barely five minutes in. The lead stayed in double figures, reaching 37-21 when Krikke hit a jumper and followed it up with a three-point play at the 3:59 mark.
With less than two minutes to go Oskar Palmquist hit a jumper, Mag had a free throw and Davis had a layup, getting the deficit to 11. Sandfort responded with a layup for a 41-28 lead with 39 seconds to go but Mag's 3s gave Rutgers momentum going into the half.
The Scarlet Knights hit their last four shots and were 5 of 6 to get up to 11 of 33. I was 14 of 35 (40%).
Iowa had blue ribbons to show support after a school shooting at Perry, Iowa, on Thursday.
Rutgers is home against Indiana on Tuesday. Nebraska is at Iowa on Friday.
