Gophers Collapse in Final Minutes; Iowa Wins 58-55
February 16, 2020
“Iowa made bigger plays at the end. Our guys did not,” said Minnesota coach Richard Pitino after his team turned the ball over five times in the final five minutes and let the Hawkeyes score 11 unanswered points for a 58-55 Iowa win before a sold-out Williams Arena. “They found a way to make one or two bigger plays than us.”
The opening minutes belonged to the Hawkeyes and their All-America candidate Luka Garza, who was 5-for-5 from the field as Iowa took a 10-2 lead into the first media timeout. Garza, scoring four of his baskets in the paint, resisted the defensive efforts of first Alihan Demir and then Daniel Oturu in addition to the double teams the Gophers tried on him.
Whatever the Gophers did after the time out on the Iowa center, it worked as Garza began kicking it out from the inside and shooting from the outside, to no avail. The Gophers closed the gap, getting a lot of second chances from strong offensive rebounding. Isaiah Ihmen, a freshman from Germany, came off the bench and grabbed three misses, and the Gophers reeled off 14 straight points for a 28-21 lead and carried a 31-26 edge into halftime.
Minnesota controlled most of the second half, as well, but Iowa coach Fran McCaffery praised the Hawkeyes for doing a better job on the boards and playing stronger defense. With Garza operating inside again, Iowa cut the lead and tied the game at 47-47 on a three-pointer by point-guard Connor McCaffery—his first points of the game—with seven minutes left.
The Gophers quickly untied it. Oturu, who was bottled up most of the game by Garza and Ryan Kriener, scored to put Minnesota back in front. Gabe Kalscheur and Payton Willis followed with three-pointers to open the lead with 5:21 left to 55-47. Minnesota didn’t score again.
The turnovers in the final minutes included two failures to get the ball across the timeline in 10 seconds. Another costly mistake came on a lane violation as McCaffery missed a free-throw. Given another chance, McCaffery made the shot to pull Iowa within 55-49.
Garza connected on a three-pointer to pull the Hawkeyes within one point. With 1:37 left, Kriener went to the line and made his first free throw to tie the score. He missed the second, but the rebound was batted back out to Kriener. With the shot clock running down, Bakari Evelyn drew a shooting foul by Willis and made both free throws to make the score 57-55. “That was a savvy play to get fouled in that situation,” said Fran McCaffery.
Another turnover gave the ball back to Iowa. Willis rebounded a Garza miss, and the Gophers had a final chance. Marcus Carr had his shot blocked, but Oturu got the deflection in the land and was fouled by Garza, sending him to the line for a one-and-one opportunity that could tie the game with 3.8 seconds left. Oturu missed the first shot, which was rebounded by McCaffery. He was fouled, made one of two, and Iowa held on for the win.
Oturu, who was averaging 20.1 points and 11.5 rebounds per game, was held to 15 points and 6 rebounds. Garza led all scorers with 24 points. He and Joe Wieskamp each had eight rebounds.
“Towards the end,” said Pitino, “it seemed that we just want to make that big play.” The coach said his team felt demoralized, adding that’s the way it should be. “You want them to hate it. It stinks.”
Pitino said all the Gophers could do is come back the next day and prepare for their next game, at home against Indiana. “Nobody’s feeling sorry for anyone.”