Bennett Stirtz scored 16 points and Kael Combs added 15 as ninth-seeded Iowa notched a 67-61 victory over eighth-seeded Clemson on Friday night in first-round NCAA Tournament South Region play at Tampa.
Alvaro Folgueiras had 14 points and Cam Manyawu collected 10 rebounds for Iowa (22-12), which never trailed. The Hawkeyes will face either top-seeded Florida or 16th-seeded Prairie View A&M on Sunday.
“Sometimes it’s not always pretty,” Iowa coach Ben McCollum said. “Sometimes we don’t always work with a high level of intelligence. But no one will question our fight. That’s what we recruited.
“And I don’t mean they’re dumb players. They’re not dumb players; they’re smart players. But sometimes we do things that are just, like, out of this world. What we never forget to do is fight, though. That’s probably more what the compliment is meant to be.”
RJ Godfrey scored 15 points and Efrem “Butta” Johnson added 11 for the Tigers (24-11), who lost despite committing just three turnovers.
A driving layup by Combs gave Iowa a 63-57 lead with 56.5 seconds remaining. After Folgueiras made two free throws with 27.2 seconds left, Johnson buried a trey to bring Clemson within 65-60 with 16.8 seconds to play.
Stirtz made two free throws with 10.9 seconds to play to make it a seven-point margin as Iowa closed it out.
Iowa shot 38.3% from the field, including 7 of 25 (28%) from 3-point range. Honorable mention All-American Stirtz made just 4 of 17 shots.
“Yeah, that’s kind of been us this whole year,” Stirtz said. “We know we’re not the most athletic team or talented team out there but I think we’re the most together team and we love hanging out with each other. So there’s that.”
Clemson connected on 40.7% of its attempts and was 9 of 26 (34.6%) from behind the arc.
The Tigers played without big man Carter Welling, who tore an ACL against Wake Forest in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament on March 11.
His loss was big as the Hawkeyes held a 40-27 rebounding advantage.
Stirtz opened the second half with a 3-pointer to give Iowa a 35-25 lead.
He drained another trey nearly six minutes later to start a 9-0 run. Tate Sage notched two layups and Folgueiras added a tip-in to give the Hawkeyes a 44-33 advantage with 11:33 remaining.
Folgueiras made two free throws to give Iowa a 51-37 lead with 8:39 left before Clemson made its next five shots.
“I thought we stayed with our plan and hung in there reasonably well defensively, but the defensive rebounding was a problem, and obviously the fouling with the free throws, that was the big difference in the game,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. “We couldn’t get some defensive stops when we needed them and had a couple opportunities when we tightened the game up and made a couple plays that just were poor.”
Jestin Porter sank two 3-pointers while Dillon Hunter and Dallas Thomas each hit one trey during a 14-5 push that saw the Tigers creep within 56-51 with 5:12 to play.
Iowa responded by scoring five of the next seven points to take a 61-53 lead on Folgueiras’ two free throws with 2:15 left.
“Early on, I just think we missed a couple easy shots, especially me, around the rim,” Godfrey said. “I know some of our guys missed some easy ones, but that was in the game plan. They’re going to be disruptive, and they’re very lengthy. But I think it was just us just missing shots around the rim.”
Combs scored 11 first-half points and Iowa held a 32-25 halftime lead.
The Hawkeyes led 18-6 after a 3-pointer by Folgueiras with 13:07 left in the first half.
Clemson later used a 9-4 run to move within 26-19 on Johnson’s trey with 3:32 remaining. Dillon nailed a 3-pointer with 50 seconds left to again cut the Hawkeyes’ lead to seven.
–Field Level Media
