Iowa 93, Michigan 84 (OT)
Keep fighting until the clock hits 0:00, right? That's exactly what Iowa did on Thursday night, rallying from multiple deficits against Michigan to win a 93-84 thriller in overtime. Michigan hit Iowa with haymaker after haymaker for 38 minutes and led for almost 34 minutes of the game. Iowa held the lead a few times in the first and second halves -- but only briefly before another Michigan made basket returned the lead to the Wolverines. The Michigan lead got as high as 10, but hovered around 4-7 points for much of the second half. In fact, it was 77-70 Michigan after a Hunter Dickinson putback with 2:18 to go. At that point, Michigan's win probability hit 89%, its highest point during the game.
So, naturally, that's when Iowa put together one of the most stunning late rallies in recent memory.
A sloppy sequence of steals by both teams ended with Filip Rebraca hitting a layup to cut the lead to 77-72. A Michigan turnover gave the ball right back to Iowa and Payton Sandfort promptly drained a 3 to cut the lead to 77-75 with a minute to go. But Michigan answered back with a Kobe Bufkin jumper to take a 79-75 lead with 29 seconds to go. That's when Sandfort hit what will probably be one of the plays of the season for Iowa, swishing a three-pointer and getting fouled in the process to set up an improbable four-point play exactly when Iowa needed it most. Just watch it:
Michigan had the ball back with 20 seconds to go, but an Iowa defense that had been torched for most of the night tightened up exactly when they most needed to do so. Iowa had two fouls to give on Michigan's final possession, which ended up being key, as it allowed Iowa to have Michigan drain clock and foul them before they could attempt a shot. Iowa never allowed Michigan to get even a semi-good look in those final 20 seconds, aside from an off-balance runner in the lane from Michigan guard Dug McDaniel with time expiring. Iowa's defense didn't have much to crow about in the first 39 minutes of this game, but it was excellent in those final 20 seconds. Sandfort's four-point play was the play of the game, but it's just a footnote in this game if Iowa doesn't get the stop at the end of regulation.
Overtime was almost all Iowa -- Michigan looked rattled from their blown lead and finally started to miss shots, while Iowa rode the momentum from their late rally (and Payton Sandfort's hot shooting) to an 8-0 run to start overtime (including five points for Sandfort). Iowa ended up out-scoring Michigan 14-5 in the extra period, allowing them to cruise to a 93-84 win... less than 20 minutes (of real time) after they looked dead and buried in the game.
The first half was an offensive track meet, with Michigan riding a phenomenally hot hand for Jett Howard to a 43-40 lead at the break. Howard made his first six shots and finished the half with 21 points (already a career high) on 8/11 shooting, including an absurd 5/6 from behind the 3-point arc. Iowa had 15 points from Kris Murray (and a surprise 8-point half from Josh Dix off the bench) to keep the game close, but the lackluster defense was putting Iowa in the danger zone. On defense Iowa sent a lot of help defenders at Hunter Dickinson to slow him down, which essentially dared Michigan's open shooters to hit shots... unfortunately, they did -- at an alarming rate. Michigan was 7/13 (54%) from 3-point range in the first half and they kept that going in the second half (7/12). Even with an 0/6 outing from beyond the arc in overtime, Michigan finished 14/31 (45%) from deep, which is a pretty absurd number -- Iowa won't many games allowing three-point shooting like that, frankly. The defensive rotations were a little too slow for much of the game and constantly going under screens wasn't working. Michigan hasn't been a great 3-point shooting team this season so it does make sense to force them to hit shots... but once the Wolverines showed that they were able to make plenty of three-pointers tonight, Iowa's defense needed to make some adjustments.
BOX SCORIN'
Kris Murray's consistent play kept Iowa in this game when Michigan's hot shooting was threatening to turn the game into a rout -- in addition to his 15 points in the first half, he had six points in the first seven minutes of the second half. But his last points in regulation came off a three-pointer with 9:27 to go. Murray went 0/3 with a pair of turnovers in the remainder of regulation. That's not to dog Murray's play at all -- again, Iowa doesn't have a shot at winning this game without his very strong performance in the first 30 minutes of the game -- but just to point out that Murray wasn't Iowa's closer tonight.
That was Payton Sandfort, who was absolutely electric in scoring 24 of his career-high 26 points in the second half and overtime. Sandfort scored 14 points in the final 10 minutes, including seven in that stunning final minute. Sandfort channeled some of Jordan Bohannon's late game shooting heroics and it was incredible to behold. He finished with 26 points on 9/17 shooting (4/9 from 3-point range) along with 7 rebounds and 3 assists. He's scored in double figures in all three games since Patrick McCaffery stepped away from the team, including back-to-back 20+ point games. We wondered who was going to step up as Iowa's third option -- Sandfort is answering that question pretty emphatically. (And he might be turning into Iowa's second option at this rate.)
In fact, Sandfort was part of a huge game overall for Iowa's bench. Iowa's reserves outscored Michigan's second unit 42-12. Aside from Sandfort's big game, Iowa also got a great outing from Josh Dix, who finished with 10 points on 3/5 shooting, a team-high 5 assists, and 3 rebounds. Dix played a season-high 31 minutes, more than Ahron Ulis (12) and Tony Perkins (16) combined. Ulis and Perkins struggled to make an impact in their time on the floor in this game -- they were a combined 3/11 shooting the ball and Perkins also had two turnovers. They weren't giving Iowa much on the defensive end of the floor, either; McCaffery chewed out Perkins for a defensive breakdown at one point in the first half. Dix had the hot hand tonight and Fran rode him. Iowa also got some very positive minutes from Riley Mulvey (4 points, 2 rebounds, a steal and a +4 rating in 13 minutes), who had to play extended minutes in this game with Filip Rebraca getting in a bit of foul trouble. Mulvey helped Iowa stay afloat while Rebraca was on the bench.
A quick shout-out to Rebraca as well, though -- despite that foul trouble, he still managed to play 32 minutes and finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds, including four key offensive rebounds. He wasn't great from the field (just 3/9), but he was able to get to the free throw line and do damage (7/10) -- not something we saw from him last season. He's made big strides since then in all phases of the game, though. In fact, he played Dickinson, who has been very good this year, to a draw -- Michigan's big man finished with 12 points and 13 rebounds, but he also had four turnovers and went just 1/3 at the free throw line (including a few key misses late).