Iowa men rally from 20 down to drop Gophers

IOWA CITY (AP) — Patrick McCaffery and Payton Sandfort each scored 21 points and combined for 26 in the second half to help Iowa rally from a 20-point deficit and beat Minnesota 90-85 Sunday.

Tony Perkins added 12 of his 18 in the second half and Owen Freeman had 17 points, 14 rebounds and four blocks for Iowa (14-10, 6-7 Big Ten).

Dawson Garcia scored 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting, Braeden Carrington also scored 18 and Mike Mitchell Jr. added 17 points, including five 3-pointers for Minnesota (15-8, 6-6).

Mitchell hit his last 3 to make it 62-42 about 4 minutes into the second half and Cam Christie’s one-hand dunk in transition made it 66-47 with 14:20 left. McCaffery scored 10 of his 14 second-half points in the next 6 minutes as the Hawkeyes made it an eight-point game.

Carrington made two free throws that gave the Golden Gophers a 77-65 lead with 7:40 remaining but they didn’t score again for the next 4-plus minutes. Sandfort scored nine points in a 16-0 run, including a layup that gave Iowa its first lead since the opening minutes followed by a 3-pointer that capped the spurt and made it 81-77 with 4 minutes to go.

Iowa made 9 of 11 from the free-throw line down the stretch to seal it.

Iowa visits Maryland on Valentine’s Day.

Minnesota plays at No. 2 Purdue on Friday.