Iowa City, Iowa- Iowa guard Matt Gatens drives against Indiana guard Will Sheehey at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Sunday, February 19, 2012. Gatens has 30 points in the Hawkeyes' 78-66 victory over the Hoosiers. (The Daily Iowan/Adam Wesley)
By Jordan Garretson
jordan-garretson@uiowa.edu
Matt Gatens turned to the Carver-Hawkeye Arena faithful and threw his arms in the air, beckoning the fans to their feet. And just as Gatens has poured 1,482 points, 119 starts, and more than 4,000 minutes into the Iowa basketball program over the last four years, a crowd of 13,282 returned the favor with deafening cheers.
The final 17 seconds ticked off the clock on the Hawkeyes’ 78-66 win over No. 18 Indiana.
“The crowd was into it,” Gatens said. “All the guys were happy and smiling and that’s what means the most to me — just everybody being happy. After so many down times, it’s a lot of fun winning.”
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But that wasn’t the first time the senior guard brought Iowa fans to their feet on Sunday. Gatens’ career-high 30 points — 22 of which came in the second half — denied Indiana’s comeback bid and propelled Iowa to victory.
The Iowa City native turned in a lukewarm first stanza, scoring 8 points on just 2-of-8 shooting as the Hawkeyes seized a 37-26 halftime lead. Iowa’s advantage expanded to 19 with 12:13 remaining. Then the Hoosiers chipped away, using a 9-0 run to trim the deficit to 52-42 with just over eight minutes left. Iowa went 0-for-5 from the floor during that stretch — but Gatens took none of those shots.
From there, Gatens’ mentality would be best described by Big Ten Network commentator Gus Johnson, who referred to the sharpshooter as “Matty Fresh” during Sunday’s game: Rise and fire.
Gatens hit four 3-pointers between the 7:21 and 4:35 marks, helping restore Iowa’s lead to 19 points.
“We made a good run in the second half,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said. ” … But then Matt Gatens, the most determined player on the floor in my opinion, took it to another level. He got extremely hot and broke our backs in the sense of coming back.”
He hit one more 3-pointer with 1:16 left to finish with a career-high 7 3-pointers. The 22-year-old, who Crean called one of the country’s better guards, was 7-of-10 from long range.
“It seemed like every time we needed a bucket, he hit a 3,” sophomore Melsahn Basabe said. “Whether it was a one-dribble, deep 3, corner 3′s, every time we needed something he provided it. It was just a great performance by a senior leader.”
Sunday’s game was simply the latest installment in a series of games in which Gatens has played like a man possessed. He nearly carried Iowa to a comeback victory in a 69-64 loss at Penn State on Feb. 16 by going 5-of-7 from long distance and scoring 21 points. Gatens is 15-of-22 from deep and averaging 22 points over the last three games.
The reason? He simply is a man possessed. He’s possessed with the desire to reach a postseason tournament for the first — and only — time in his career.
“It’s the last time,” he said. “You have to give it your all. This really is your last time. You see it, you see the schedule, you want to make the most of it. We want to make the postseason, that’s the goal right now.”
The Hawkeyes will have no problem qualifying for postseason play following the Big Ten Tournament if Gatens continues his tear, which even went viral on Sunday: “Matt Gatens” was the No. 3 trending topic worldwide on Twitter at one point.
“That’s cool, I guess,” Gatens smiled and said sheepishly, ducking his head out of the limelight as he humbly has so many times before. Continuing to shrug off his well-deserved fanfare, he predictably shifted the focus away from himself and towards Thursday’s home contest against No. 15 Wisconsin.
“Hopefully we get Iowa trending on Thursday.”
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