I was all set for the headline of this story to be ‘Reversal’ as it looked like Iowa was going to beat Michigan on Tuesday night a few weeks after losing by 14 at Ann Arbor in a game that was hardly that close.
However, All Big Ten center DeShawn Sims had other ideas, stabbing the Hawkeyes in the heart with two daggers; one of them being a three-point shot with :06.1 second to play to tie the game, and another a closely guarded fall-away 15 footer over Andrew Brommer with under two minutes left in overtime to give Michigan a two possession lead. Sims wound up scoring 27 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead Michigan, who decided to go into the paint in the second half after scoring just six inside in the first.
This was a painful loss for the Hawkeyes and for their fans. Iowa deserved to win this game, if there is such a thing. They played valiantly and fought extremely hard, and it was an entertaining brand of basketball.
Iowa hit 27-58 shots, including 9-21 from three-point range; that is within their recipe for success. They had 12 turnovers to Michigan’s nine, another stat that is within their margin for error (it as 10-8 in that stat at the end of regulation). They were +3 on the glass, they went to the line four more times than did Michigan, making 12-16 from the stripe; however it was two late misses, one by Aaron Fuller and one by Cully Payne, that would come back to haunt Iowa as they helped keep the game within one possession and Sims, a 31% three-point shooter entering the game, sent it to overtime.
Aaron Fuller played the game of his career, hitting 30 points and 13 rebounds, including six offensive boards; he leads the league in that statistic. He had 20 & 10 with more than 12 minutes to play in the game. Matt Gatens scored 21 for Iowa while Cully Payne played one of his better floor games, dishing out seven assists to just one turnover. Payne added 10 points. However, he was just 3-14 shooting and took one too many errant attempts right at the rim in range of the tall trees. Andrew Brommer played 13 minutes and showed that he can grow into a contributor on this team. He had some nice defensive stops against Sims, a future NBA big man, although he still hurries his offensive sets and needs a lot of work on that area of his game.
In the end, the Hawkeyes lost 80-78. This is the kind of game that this type of team, one that is building for the future, needs to put into their reserve tank to get them through the last few games of this year. They needed the reward for their hard work, but they were left wondering how they let a five point lead with :22 seconds left to play in regulation evaporate.
I guess one could say this game will be a learning lesson, but in a season filled with all sorts of lessons, the kids just wanted a win. They deserved a win but as in life, you don’t always get what you deserve.
With the loss, Iowa falls to 9-18 on the season, 3-11 in Big Ten play. They have three more regular season games, plus at least one contest in the Big Ten tournament. No team in Iowa history has lost 20 games in a season, and Iowa will have to finish 4-0 to end the regular season if it wants to avoid that dubious mark. That road starts on 2/25 as the Hawkeyes travel to Northwestern. They will then host Indiana before finishing at Wisconsin and Minnesota.
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