Iowa men come back from 25 down, fall to Tennessee 83-77 in OT
Lang/AP
3/24/19
Iowa tied the largest comeback in NCAA Tournament history, but it wasn’t enough.
The 10th-seeded Iowa men’s basketball team erased a 25-point first half deficit to force overtime, but second-seeded Tennessee outscored the Hawkeyes, 12-6, in the extra frame to post an 83-77 NCAA Tournament victory to advance to the Sweet 16.
After trailing 49-28 at the half, the Hawkeyes came out a different team in the second half. Tyler Cook was held scoreless in the opening 20 minutes before single-handedly bringing the Hawkeyes back.
The St. Louis native scored Iowa’s first nine points of the second half to cut the 21-point deficit to 14. Cook’s jumper at the 13:35 mark capped a 16-4 run to close the gap to single digits.
Trailing 61-50 with 9:15 to play. Iowa used an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 61-58 with 7:23 to play. Down 65-58 with 5:35 remaining, Luka Garza’s three-point play trimmed the deficit to 65-61 and an Isaiah Moss 3-pointer from the corner (with the shot clock expiring) made the score 65-64 with 4:21 to play.
Iowa trailed 71-67 with 57 seconds remaining when Moss’ driving layup pulled the Hawkeyes to within two and two Joe Wieskamp free throws tied the game at 71 with 20 seconds left. Tennessee had a final chance for the win, but Jordan Bone missed a 3-pointer with four seconds left, sending the game to overtime.
From there, the Vols seized control, scoring the first seven points of the bonus frame before running out six-point winners.
Jordan Bohannon scored 18 for Iowa, which never led but managed to tie it twice after falling so far behind.
The biggest NCAA Tournament comeback to win was BYU’s 25-point rally past Iona in the First Four in 2012.
The Hawkeyes wrapped up a turnaround season. They improved their win total by nine games and were second in the Big Ten in scoring in coach Fran McCaffrey’s ninth season.
Iowa finished the season with five victories over nationally ranked opponents, matching its highest total in 13 seasons (2015-16 season).
