Pryce Sandfort scored a game-high 22 points, older brother Payton Sandfort added 17 points and Owen Freeman had 15 points and eight rebounds to lift Iowa to an 89-74 win against Southern on Thursday in Iowa City, Iowa.
Iowa (2-0) led the Jaguars (0-2) by as many as 25 points.
Five Hawkeyes scored in double figures, with Josh Dix (14 points) and Drew Thelwell (12) helping to round out a balanced attack.
AJ Barnes sparked Southern with 14 points while Brentay Noel and DaMariee Jones
each scored 10 points. Tidjiane Dioumassi, who poured in 30 points during the Jaguars’ season-opening loss at South Dakota on Monday, was limited to nine points on 4-for-10 shooting.
Pryce Sandfort, meanwhile, proved remarkably efficient from the floor. He connected on 8 of 10 attempts from the floor, including a 6-of-8 effort from 3-point range. Iowa shot 53.3 percent from the floor and Southern finished at 47.7 percent.
The Jaguars closed the game on a 10-0 run but it couldn’t offset the Hawkeyes’ consistency from deep. Iowa made 18 3-pointers, with Payton Sandfort hitting four treys.
Iowa blitzed Southern in the first half, racing to a 48-37 lead at the break behind 52.9 percent shooting that included a 9-for-20 (45 percent) effort from deep.
Pryce Sandfort drilled each of his three 3-point attempts off the bench on the way to 11 first-half points. Noel had eight points to pace the Jaguars.
Many of Southern’s finest moments came in the opening minute. The Jaguars won the opening tip and took an early lead thanks to Michael Jacobs’ jumper and Jones’ layup.
A Freeman three-point play and Dix’s trey keyed an 8-0 Hawkeyes run that coincided with a cold spell for the Jaguars. Iowa never trailed after that but couldn’t fully put away Southern in the first 20 minutes.
Seven straight Jaguars points brought the visitors within six with 1:20 to go before halftime. Iowa responded by scoring the next five points. Payton Sandfort punctuated the spurt with a second-chance 3-pointer with 10 seconds left.
Iowa improved to 3-0 against Southern all time.
