Hawks run ends with 71-59 loss to Illinois
· Yahoo Sports
Well folks. It was a helluva run in Ben McCollum’s first season. But the magic ran out against a familiar foe with the Iowa Hawkeyes (24-13) losing to the Illinois Fighting Illini (28-8), 71-59, after the offense dried up in the second half. Bennett Stirtz led the Hawks with 24 points on 8/17 shooting and his 15 first half points paced the Hawkeyes offense to an early lead. Tate Sage was the only other Hawks with double-digit scoring with 10.
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The game could not have started better with the Hawks building a 12-2 lead within the first 4 minutes. The offense was humming and Iowa was able to maintain their efficiency from the first three tournament games. After the break, the Illini began leaning on the Hawkeyes on the offensive glass: 3 of their next 4 baskets game on second chance opportunities, including a tip in which appeared to be in the cylinder which closed the gap to 20-15.
After a pair of Stirtz baskets which stretched Iowa’s lead to 27-20, the offense dried up for about 4 minutes before a Tate Sage 3 extended the lead to 30-26 with 2:55 remaining. Despite the wretched defensive rebounding, Iowa availed themselves on that end by forcing 7 first half turnovers and holding Illinois to 10/27 shooting in the frame. Crucially, a team which relies heavily on the 3 was not able to string any makes together as the Illini went just 1/8 from deep in the first.
A final basket by Cam Manyawu put Iowa up 32-28 heading into the break.
Out of the break, the game changed substantially in how the game was called. After calling just 11 fouls throughout the first frame (8 on Iowa), they called 11 in the first 9 minutes. Despite the lack of flow, the game turned into a back & forth affair with 9 lead changes during the timeframe.
Tavion Banks, Cooper Koch, & Stirtz all sank 3s as Keaton Wagler took over for Illinois.
With Wagler taking over, there was a crucial foul call off a long rebound on a missed three of his. Iowa had it corralled for a 2-on-0 break in a 46-46 game. Yet a foul away from the play was called on Wagler who tripped up Banks after falling on his 3-point attempt. Stan Van Gundy (who got a little lot too wrapped around the officiating for my liking) thought it could have been a landing zone foul on Iowa but it felt like a situation where you just let it go and allow Iowa the easy layup.
Instead the Hawks missed a 3 after the television timeout which kicked off another key scoring drought.
Those stretches which impacted Iowa throughout the regular season returned as Illinois’ size was able to shut the Hawks’ water off. Stirtz had to work much harder than he did in the first half to get a free look and Illinois stretched their lead to 58-51, Iowa’s biggest deficit at that point, over a 3 minute span to bring the game to 4:51 remaining.
If there’s a huge question coming out of this game, it was how much Iowa leaned on small lineups. Isaia Howard played a tournament-high 19 minutes and mostly did well on defense while adding 5 points on offense. But the flip side was the lack of Alvaro Folgueiras, who played just 9 in the game with 2 turnovers and no rebounds. Iowa was -11 during his time out the court. Yucky end to a great tournament run.
Howard’s 3 with 3:48 remaining gave the Hawks life to get it to 60-55. Yet Andrej Stojakovic, who was a tough cover for Iowa in both matchups, stretched it back an 8-point deficit. Tate Sage calmly hit 4 free throws over the next minute but there Stojakovic was getting it back.
Iowa had two looks at the rim but couldn’t cut into the lead and they went the final 3:48 without a made basket. Illinois closed on an 8-0 run. Ugh.
After a rough end to the regular season, we got a little bounce back in the conference tournament and then a HUGE bounce back in the NCAA Tournament. 67 teams end their season on an NCAA Tournament loss so let’s not lose sight of the fact that this was the first run Iowa’s made since 1987.
Despite having size more in line with an MVC team, no fan could question the fight of this bunch. There’s a lot to be happy about and the hope that a program can find money in the postseason when the regular season goes sideways does a lot with fan sentiment. With key contributors who have years of eligibility remaining, there’s confidence that the foundation set in Year 1 of Ben McCollum can carryover despite losing stalwart Bennett Stirtz.
Truly what a rush it was to be playing this deep into March. Now that we got a taste, I can’t wait to see how Big Ten Ben follows it up.