The Iowa Hawkeyes (20-11, 10-10) couldn’t after mounting a comeback over the last 4 minutes of regulation and fell to the Nebraska Cornhuskers (26-5, 15-5) in overtime, 84-75.
Kael Combs scored the final 8 points for Iowa in the second half, including a 3-pointer with 9 seconds left off an offensive rebound to send the game into OT. He & Cooper Koch led the Hawks with 18 points apiece.
The game began much like the first matchup between these two teams. Choppy offense as the Hawks had 11 first half
turnovers and Nebraska had 8. As the Hawks struggled stringing baskets together, Nebraska was able to play from ahead. Iowa was able to keep the game close, as former Hawkeye Pryce Sandfort had just 4 points in the frame and the Huskers entered half up, 30-26.
Out of the break, the matchup finally opened up. Unfortunately for Iowa, it was Nebraska who finally started getting the ball to go in, freeing Sandfort up for back-to-back threes after Rienk Mast opened the second with a three of his own. The Hawks traded 2s for 3s as the Huskers built a 43-32 lead.
It felt like it might get off the rails before Koch hit 3 threes within 4 minutes. The last cut the Nebraska lead to 7 points. Unfortunately, Iowa just couldn’t get stops. Cale Jacobsen made a pair of baskets, as part of a 6/6 day, going for 15 points off the bench.
As Iowa threw body after body at Sandfort, the Hawks really couldn’t stop him. His layup on a post up against Tate Sage stretched the lead to 11 points with 8:39 left and it felt like that might be it.
Yet Iowa kept fighting, a Tavion Banks jumper was followed by an Isaia Howard layup and two Alvaro Folgueiras free throws cut the lead to 6 with 6:00 left. After letting the deficit slip to 64-54, Koch and Banks hit back-to-back 3s which put Iowa in striking distance under 4:00.
Fred Hoiberg dialed up a Mast post-up out of a timeout and then Iowa countered with a backdoor cut to Bennett Stirtz. Jacobsen got another layup before Combs drove for a layup to cut the deficit to 68-64. Jamarques Lawrence missed the front end of a one-and-one which allowed another Combs layup to cut the deficit further. He did it again but Combs could only hit one of two free throws on the next possession to cut it to 68-67. Ugh.
Sandfort was able to hit his free throws and then a Stirtz 3 pointer came up short. Good job good effort? But Folgueiras nabbed the board and found Combs to tie it up.
Unfortunately Iowa just didn’t have the steam in the extra frame. Jacobsen hit a three and Sam Hoiberg added a couple free throws before Banks and Koch combined to tie it up with 1:49 remaining. Yet that was the only scoring Iowa had as another Jacobsen 3 felt like the nail in the coffin.
Stirtz shot just once in overtime, as he was pretty well bottled up throughout the game. He had just 11 points on 4/10 shooting.
And thus ends Ben McCollum’s first regular season as the Hawkeye head man. The last five games left a lot to be desired, as they sputtered to a finish with the schedule toughening up. They’ll face the winner of the Oregon/Maryland game on Thursday.
