HOUSTON – Now, the Hawkeyes are dancing like it’s 1987.
For the first time in 39 years, the No. 9 seed Iowa men’s basketball team is going to the Elite Eight with its 77-71 win over No. 4 seed Nebraska on Thursday. The Hawkeyes took their first lead of the game with 2:10 left and held onto it to dance on to Saturday. Iowa is the lowest-seeded Big Ten team to reach an Elite Eight appearance in the conference’s history.
Bennett Stirtz led the team with 20 points and four assists. Freshman forward Tate Sage was right behind him with 19 points, eight rebounds, and four threes. Alvaro Folgueiras with 16 points, several coming in the clutch. And Cooper Koch’s three made three-pointers aided his 11-point game.
“This team is as competitive as can be,” Folgueiras said describing his Hawkeye squad. “It was a great matchup. I’m sure it was an unbelievable game to watch from the outside.”
Former Hawkeye Pryce Sandfort paced his Husker squad with 25 points on six threes.
The second half was way different than the first half, similar to the second meeting between the two teams in Lincoln. At the 15:05 mark, the Hawkeyes finally tied the score for the first time all night at 50 apiece. Then again, at 63 apiece with 6:33 left. And again at 65 with 5:03 left.
Finally, Stirtz hit a three with 2:10 left to give Iowa a three-point lead, 68-65. Nebraska missed the shot on the other end, and Sage hit his fourth three of the night for a six-point advantage. Sandfort missed the three on the other end, to which Braden Frager got the offensive rebound and hit the three.
With Iowa up, 71-68, the Cornhuskers full-court pressed and left Folgueiras wide open for the breakaway jam – and he was fouled as a Nebraska player chased him down and attempted to contest his dunk. From there, Iowa held off its rivals and sent them home.
“It came down to defensive stops,” Koch said. “I don’t think we got that many three-stop possession in a row. So to finally get some of those and hit some big shots from Tate, Bennett, [Alvaro], it was big.”
The game felt like a Nebraska blowout in the first half, yet it only led by three, 46-43, going into halftime. It was a shotmaking clinic through 20 minutes – Nebraska shot 58 percent from the field, Iowa shot 60 percent. Both with 15 made field goals and seven made threes. The Cornhuskers made three more free throws for the difference – six of Nebraska’s nine free throw attempts came off two three-point shooting fouls.
Nebraska had five offensive rebounds in the first half. Four of those came before the 15-minute mark. It’s eight second-chance points that aided an early 16-6 lead through 4:39 of play. And there were a few times Iowa found some momentum and cut the lead down halfway before Nebraska shot its way back up to double digits every time.
“A lot. I can’t say it on camera,” head coach Ben McCollum said of his message to the team after it trailed by 10 points early. “I think [Nebraska] just imposed their will on us. I thought they were the better team to start the game.”
Nebraska freshman forward Braden Frager made three consecutive three-pointers from 13:17 to 10:27 to offset Iowa’s two made threes. The Cornhuskers also went from 13:17 to 3:34 without missing two shots in a row. It forced its pace on Iowa, and it worked, though the Hawkeyes held their own and kept the game within one possession through 20 minutes of play.
Tate Sage paced the team with 11 first-half points and three made three-pointers. Stirtz followed with a quiet 10 points, and Alvaro Folgueiras put up eight points.
