Monday March 14th Local Sports

INDIANAPOLIS — Iowa won the Big Ten Tournament on Sunday for the first time since 2006. The Hawkeyes turned back a late Purdue rally for a 75-66 win, avenging two regular season losses to the Boilermakers. Iowa coach Fran McCaffery says it was depth that allowed the Hawkeyes to win four games in four days.

Iowa had an eight point lead sliced to one with just over three minutes remaining but made the plays down the stretch to post its 26th win of the season.

The Hawkeyes are the fifth seed in the Midwest Regional and open the NCAA Tournament Thursday in Buffalo, New York against a Richmond team that upset Davidson to win the Atlantic 10 Tournament title.

Keegan Murray led the Hawkeyes with 19 points and was named the tournament’s most outstanding player.

Sophomore forward Patrick McCaffery on winning the championship.

Sophomore guard and Indianapolis native Tony Perkins says defense was the key to holding off Purdue in the second half.

Tipoff on Thursday is scheduled for 2:10 PM Iowa time, with the pre-game starting at about 1 o’clock on AM-1300 KGLO

 

 

AMES — Iowa State is the 11th seed in the Midwest Regional and will play LSU on Friday in Milwaukee, the hometown of Cyclone coach T.J. Otzelberger. The Cyclones are 20-12.

The Cyclones take on an LSU team that saw head coach Will Wade fired in the midst of an NCAA investigation.

Otzelberger took over a Cyclone program that won two games a year ago.

Tipoff for Iowa State-LSU is scheduled for 6:20 Friday evening. The winner will advance to take on the winner of the game between Wisconsin and Colgate.

 

 

 

CEDAR FALLS — The Northern Iowa men have earned a spot in the National Invitational Tournament. They’ll travel to St. Louis University on Wednesday evening. UNI will make its 15th appearance in a national postseason tournament and first since the 2016 NCAA Tournament. The Panthers last made the NIT in 2012, defeating St. Joseph’s (PA) in Philadelphia before coming up short at Drexel in the second round. UNI also made one appearance in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT) in 2013. The Panthers qualified for the NIT by virtue of winning the Missouri Valley Conference’s regular season championship in late February.

 

 

 

IOWA CITY — The Iowa and Iowa State women will host the opening two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. The Hawkeyes are seeded second in the Greensboro Regional and play Illinois State Friday. The other first round game pits Colorado and Creighton. Sophomore guard Caitlin Clark.

The Hawkeyes have won seven straight and hope to make a deep tournament run.

Iowa State hosts Texas-Arlington Friday in Ames. The Cyclones are 26-6 after falling to Texas in the semifinal round at the Big Ten Tournament.

That’s Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly. Georgia plays the winner of Wednesday’s game between Dayton and DePaul.

Start times for both games have not been determined.

 

 

MOLINE, Ill. (AP) — Juliunn Redmond scored eight of her 21 points in the fourth quarter when Illinois State rallied to beat Northern Iowa 50-48 for the Missouri Valley Conference tournament title on Sunday in the Quad Cities. The fourth-seeded Redbirds will make their sixth NCAA Tournament appearance and first since 2008. Maya Wong added 15 points for Illinois State, which lost its two regular-season meetings to Northern Iowa. Karli Rucker, who had six points early in the fourth quarter, finished with 16 to lead the Panthers. Northern Iowa as well as Drake will play in the Women’s NIT

 

 

UNDATED (AP) — The Minnesota Vikings and quarterback Kirk Cousins have agreed to a one-year contract extension. Cousins was scheduled to carry a salary cap charge of more than $45 million. That made it imperative for the Vikings to reduce that number either by trading him or extending him with a deal to flatten out his guaranteed money. The Vikings opted to keep Cousins for at least the near future, with new head coach Kevin O’Connell on board. O’Connell and Cousins developed a strong relationship when they were with Washington together in 2017.

 

 

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Yankees have acquired former AL MVP Josh Donaldson and shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa and backup catcher Ben Rortvedt from the Minnesota Twins for catcher Gary Sánchez and third baseman Gio Urshela. The trade remakes the left side of the Yankees infield and rids them of Sánchez, a two-time All-Star who’s been a defensive liability and slumped at the plate in four straight seasons. Donaldson becomes a teammate of Gerrit Cole after suggesting last June that the Yankees ace had been trying to hide the use of unauthorized grip aides.