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 Fortunately for the No. 14 Hawkeyes, the slump did not last.
White and Marble erupted for a combined 33 points in the second half
as Iowa sprinted past Minnesota in a 94-73 come-from-behind win at
Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
"Dev and I had probably the worst first half since we've played
together," said White, who scored a team-high 18 points, all in the
second half. "It was unacceptable the way we played so we had to
pick it up in and did a good job and that's why the score reflects
it."
Marble added 16 — including 15 during the second 20 minutes — as
the Hawkeyes (15-3, 4-1 Big Ten) claimed their third straight
conference win and extended a home winning streak to 20, one shy of
matching an all-time arena record.
Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said he was not too worried about the lack
of production.
"I felt pretty good about their involvement in the second half and
their ability to affect some change out there," he said. "And boy,
did they ever."
While White and Marble struggled early, others stepped up as
reflected in five Hawkeyes closing in double figures.
Guard Josh Oglesby scored 17 points, center Gabriel Olaseni
collected 12 and guard Mike Gesell added 11.
Guard Andre Hollins paced unranked Minnesota (14-5, 3-3) with a
game-high 20 points while guard Austin Hollins added 12.
Iowa rallied from a 43-33 first-half deficit to nearly catch
Minnesota by halftime and then blitzed the Golden Gophers with a
21-10 run over the first 5:29 of the second half to open a 62-53
lead.
"We were up 10 with about 1:18 left in the first half and they made
a great run like most good teams do," Golden Gophers coach Richard
Pitino said. "We didn't respond the right way. We couldn't get
stops. We went man, we went zone, but there was no defense that I
could devise to get stops tonight."
Minnesota had just three field goals in the final 7:25 and went
scoreless for more than four minutes late in the game.
Neither team had much of an edge through most of a see-saw first
half that featured 11 lead changes and four ties.
Iowa's largest early edge at 14-9 came at 12:21 after a pair of free
throws by Olaseni. Minnesota went up 25-21 on Andre Hollins'
baseline 3-pointer with 6:40 showing.
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The Golden Gophers scored eight unanswered points in a 26-seconds
span to open a 38-22 lead with 2:10 left. They added five more as Andre Hollins connected on a
3-pointer with 1:28 showing and forward Joey King hit two free
throws 15 seconds later for a double-digit but short-lived lead
at 43-33.
The Hawkeyes rushed to close the gap to 43-41 with eight points
in 1:05, including Gesell's layup and back-to-back 3-pointers
from Ogelsby, the last coming with four seconds remaining.
"Josh was obviously really, really good in that period,"
McCaffery said. "We went to him and he was on fire. But we also
got a few stops and that gave us great momentum."
Marble had six points in the first 2:05 as Iowa continued the
run and opened a 52-46 lead. Less than 3 1/2 minutes later the
Hawkeyes went up 62-53 after White's steal and layup.
The lead hit 12 points at 71-59 with forward Jarrod Uthoff's
layup with 10:54 showing.
Minnesota twice got as close as six but Iowa regained some
distance and White's driving layup and three-point play restored
a 12-point lead at 83-71 with 4:35 to play.
After scoring 18 first-half points, Andre Hollins was held to
two.
"They just decided to shut him down," Pitino said. "I think they
did it in a variety of ways (and) we didn't do a good job of
playing inside-out in the second half."
NOTES: Iowa has scored 82 points or more in all but three games
this season. ... F Melsahn Basabe was honored prior to the game
with a commemorative basketball for topping 1,000 career points
on Jan. 9 against Northwestern. He has had double-doubles in
each of the last two games. ... The Hawkeyes' three losses have
come against teams with a combined 45-3 record. ... Sunday's
game was Minnesota's fourth against a nationally-ranked foe. The
Golden Gophers are 1-3, including last Sunday's 63-53 upset of
No. 11 Ohio State ... Minnesota leads the Big Ten in steals per
game (8.4) and free-throw shooting (.755) and is fourth in
3-pointers (7.7), assists (14.4) and rebounding margin
(plus-3.7). ... The Golden Gophers still lead the all-time
series 96-84. ... Both teams are back in action on Wednesday.
Iowa travels to Michigan while Minnesota hosts No. 3 Wisconsin.
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