HOUSTON — Renowned for imposing its will, setting the tempo and stubbornly adhering to it, Iowa instead spent the first half against Nebraska on Thursday scrambling in vain on the defensive end. Following the intermission, the Hawkeyes re-established their identity.
Bennett Stirtz scored a team-high 20 points, Tate Sage added 19 and the ninth-seeded Hawkeyes rallied from a first-half, double-digit deficit to defeat the fourth-seeded Cornhuskers 77-71 in the South Regional semifinals of the NCAA Tournament.
Stirtz provided the Hawkeyes (24-12) with their first lead at 68-65 via a 3-pointer with 2:10 left. That ignited a decisive closing surge from Iowa, which advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1987 while dashing the Cornhuskers’ bid for their first Elite Eight appearance.
“We just made enough shots to hang in there, so then we were able to keep it close, and then we decided we wanted to guard that second half, which was good,” Iowa coach Ben McCollum said. “And it slowed their tempo down a little bit, which was nice.”
Iowa will play No. 3 seed Illinois on Saturday for a trip to the Final Four after the Fighting Illini beat No. 2 seed Houston 65-55 on Thursday. The Hawkeyes, who are seeking their first national title, haven’t reached the Final Four since 1980.
Sage followed the Stirtz 3-pointer with a trey of his own that extended Iowa’s lead to 71-65 at the 1:18 mark.
After Braden Frager sliced that deficit in half with a second-chance corner trey, Alvaro Folgueiras completed a three-point play when he dunked through a foul after a breakaway layup off an inbounds pass. Nebraska had four players on the court on the play, and Folgueiras pushed Iowa to a 74-68 lead with 56 seconds left and essentially sealed the victory.
“I was pretty shocked to see Alvaro wide open,” Stirtz said. “I didn’t even know they had four players on until we were in the locker room. Kael (Combs) threw a great pass. We were able to move on the baseline, so that helped out a lot, and Al had a nice dunk.”
Pryce Sandfort paced Nebraska (28-7) with 25 points, while Frager added 16. That duo combined to shoot 11 of 18 from behind the arc for the Cornhuskers, who missed 18 of 24 3-point shots in the second half after going 7 of 14 from deep before intermission.
“It stings,” Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said. “This one hurts about as bad as any I’ve been a part of, just because of what this group is all about. We don’t get to lace ’em up anymore together as a group.
“These guys will be a part of history of Nebraska basketball forever, for winning the first NCAA Tournament game, getting to the Sweet 16, most wins in the history of the program, highest ranking. They just did so many things to elevate our program. I’m really proud of ’em.”
Folgueiras tallied 16 points for Iowa while Cooper Koch chipped in 11 and three treys. Stirtz totaled four assists.
Nebraska wasted little time seizing a double-digit lead, turning a 3-for-6 start from behind the arc and a three-point play from Rienk Mast into a 12-2 lead just over three minutes in.
After Stirtz engineered an Iowa rally with a three-point play and an assist on a Folgueiras 3-pointer that cut the deficit to 16-14, Frager responded with a trio of 3-pointers that rebuilt the Cornhuskers’ advantage to 25-17. Nebraska reclaimed its double-digit lead after Sam Hoiberg made consecutive layups, only for the Hawkeyes to fashion yet another comeback.
Stirtz followed a Folgueiras dunk with a 3-pointer and another assisted trey, by Koch, that pulled the Hawkeyes within 40-38. Jamarques Lawrence responded with six points for Nebraska, but the Hawkeyes beat the first-half buzzer with a Sage 3-pointer that sliced the margin to 46-43.
“That was huge because they were absolutely punishing us,” McCollum said of the three-point halftime deficit. “I mean, it felt like it was a 50-point lead, to be perfectly honest.”
–MK Bower, Field Level Media
