Iowa’s Payton Sandfort realizes his performance Friday at the Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City, Mo., fell short of superb.
While a lingering issue with his right wrist and hand has been troublesome, Sandfort said “it’s not an excuse,” after shooting 4-for-18 in a 77-69 loss to Utah State.
“I got to get healthy,” he added, “and figure that out.”
Iowa hopes a weekend off helped Sandfort and the rest of the Hawkeyes recharge for a Tuesday home game against South Carolina Upstate.
Iowa (5-1) is aiming to rebound from its lone loss of the season and regain momentum ahead of hosting Northwestern in the Big Ten opener on Dec. 3.
Two objectives: building depth and physicality. Brock Harding led the Hawkeyes with 19 points on Friday and Owen Freeman posted 18 points and 11 rebounds, but Sandfort (14 points) labored to be the team’s third man in double figures.
Iowa also was outrebounded 47-31.
“It’s gonna be hard to win with that number,” Hawkeyes coach Fran McCaffery said of the rebounding differential. “We did go small a couple of times. It was a decision we made to get more shooters out there and get the ball moving a little bit. But we just have to do a better job there.”
South Carolina Upstate (2-6) continues a challenging nonconference schedule that already has featured road losses to Atlantic Coast Conference schools North Carolina State, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.
The Nov. 13 game against the Demon Deacons was the closest of the bunch, as the Spartans challenged Wake Forest down the stretch of an eventual 85-80 defeat.
“They came ready to play,” Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes said of the Spartans. “I had explained to our players that they’ve already played two other ACC teams, so they weren’t going to come in here and be overwhelmed by the opponent.”
The Spartans, who also will visit South Carolina next month, are led by first-year coach Marty Richter. South Carolina Upstate is coming off a 98-74 neutral-court loss to Queens University on Saturday in Johnson City, Tenn.
Breylin Garcia scored a season-best 17 points on 7-for-10 shooting to lead the Spartans. South Carolina Upstate’s Carmelo Adkins and Karmani Gregory chipped in 12 points apiece.
