Slumping Iowa searching for answers vs. Penn State

Field Level Media|published: Thu 23rd January, 18:32 2025

Jan 7, 2025; Iowa City, Iowa, USA; Iowa Hawkeyes forward Payton Sandfort (20) reacts against the Nebraska Cornhuskers during the second half at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

After experiencing some significant issues on defense, Iowa is now seeking to fix its struggling offense Friday when Penn State visits Iowa City.

The Hawkeyes (12-7, 3-5 Big Ten) had won five of their last six games before enduring a three-game losing streak over the last 10 days. First, they surrendered 99 points at Southern California and 94 points at UCLA as they returned from California without a victory.

Home cooking didn't prove to cure the team's ails either, as Iowa dropped a 72-67 decision to Minnesota on Tuesday. The Hawkeyes scored only 28 first-half points and they finished 3-of-21 from 3-point range.

"I do think we quick-shot the ball again when we got behind," Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said. "We were forcing some threes there. Some things might have been different with regard to those particular shots. I would have preferred to see a little more ball movement there, like we saw at the end."

Owen Freeman and Payton Sandfort scored 21 points apiece for the Hawkeyes. Sandfort added 10 rebounds to notch his first double-double since opening night.

Meanwhile, the Nittany Lions (13-6, 3-5) have generally fared well offensively -- they rank 17th in the nation in points per game (84.2). But defense has been a different story for Penn State, which allowed an average of 85 points during a four-game losing streak prior to Monday's 80-72 win over Rutgers.

Ace Baldwin Jr. scored 22 points and Yanic Konan Niederhauser added 18 as the Nittany Lions prevailed in a game that was closer than the final score indicated.

"The fun of being in a close game is figuring out how to help your team win and taking pride in that," Penn State coach Mike Rhoades said. "We've had a lot of close games this year. We won some of them, and there's some ones we're disappointed in that we didn't pull them out. ... The rest of the games we play, if we play the right way, we play at a high level, it still might come down to a one-possession game."

Baldwin averages 14.7 points per game to lead Penn State. Nick Kern Jr. adds 12.6 ppg, Niederhauser is at 12.4 and Zach Hicks contributes 12.1.

The Nittany Lions and Hawkeyes split two matchups last season. This is their only meeting of 2024-25.

--Field Level Media