Hawkeyes fall in overtime to Huskers

Iowa has played the two top seeded teams in the upcoming Big Ten Tournament to wrap up their regular season. The result was a pair of close, but not cigar outcomes. This time it was at Nebraska, where they pushed the Huskers to overtime before falling 84-75.

With the loss, Iowa falls to 20-11 on the season and 10-10 in conference play. Next up for the Hawkeyes is the Big Ten Tournament where they will be seeded 9^th and face the winner of Maryland and Oregon on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m.

The first half was a defensive struggle with both teams struggle with turnovers. Iowa had 11 of them and Nebraska had 8.

Iowa opened the scoring with a three point field goal by Kael Combs, but Nebraska answered it immediately before Cam Manyawu scored on a drive to the basket. Iowa built a four point edge on another hoop from Combs. Then it was senior Sam Hoiberg asserting himself with a three and a free drive to the hole and it was 9-8 Hawkeyes in the lead.

Nebraska knotted the game at 10 with a dunk by Cale Jacobsen and went up by five after a dunk and a three point field goal by Jared Garcia to make it 15-10. Isaia Howard made a pair of free throws to end that scoreless streak. Stirtz nailed a three to cut the lead to a pair at 17-15 before the Huskers went on another string of scores.

This time it was a 6-2 run and was capped by back to back layups for Pryce Sandfort to make it 23-15 Huskers. Stirtz answered back with a three and after a Nebraska bucket, Cooper Koch drained a three from the corner and Iowa was down by two, 25-23.

The Hawkeyes pulled within one after a drive by Alvaro Folgueiras to make it 27-26, but the Huskers scored the last three points and went to the break with Nebraska up 30-26.

In the second half, both teams got into an offensive groove. At one point, Iowa and Nebraska combined to score on eleven straight possessions.

Nebraska opened the second half red hot from three. That included one from Reink Mast and back to back triple from Sandfort and the Husker lead jumped to 40-30 at the first media break.

The lead jumped to 11 after another three from Mast and kept in that range for the next few minutes. Koch kept the Hawkeyes close with a barrage of three pointers after the break. He hit his second three of the second half to cut the lead to 46-38 just before the second media timeout.

That was the start of the hot shooting and scoring from both teams. Tavion Banks, who did not start, scored twice. Koch hit another three and Combs scored on a layup and Iowa was still down, but cutting into the lead at 54-47.

Lawrence pushed the lead back to ten with a three pointer and a layup from Sandfort put it to 11 at 59-48. The lead was sitting at ten, 64-54, when the Hawkeyes caught fire down the stretch.

Back to back made three pointers by Koch and Banks trimmed the lead to 64-60 and Nebraska called a timeout. Cael Jacobsen scored to put the Huskers back up 68-62, but then Iowa closed strong in the final minutes.

It was Combs, who finished with 18 points, doing most of the damage. He came out of a timeout and went down hill on back to back drives for scores. Iowa was also helped by the Cornhuskers missing two front ends from the charity stripe. Combs was fouled on his next drive and made one of two to cut the lead to 68-67.

Sandfort made a pair of free throws and then Iowa had one more shot, down three. Combs hit a three pointer with just over two seconds left to tie the game at 70 and send it to overtime.

In the extra session it was a game of runs. Nebraska came out strong, scoring the first five points and then Iowa rallied with the next five on a pair of free throws by Banks and a three from Koch. But, then it was Nebraska taking over. Iowa suffered a couple of turnovers and Jacobsen and Hoiberg scored seven in a row the Huskers ran out the clock on their senior day.