Courtesy Nebraska Athletics
In a season of pure joy, it had to end with agonizing pain, with a loss to their fiercest rival.
The greatest season of Nebraska men’s basketball ended with a searing 77-71 defeat to Iowa in the Sweet 16 round Thursday in Houston, Texas. In a fashion befitting the losses to the Hawkeyes in football for the better part of the past decade, the Cornhuskers led most of the game before Iowa pulled ahead for the first time after back-to-back three-pointers by Bennett Stirtz and Tate Sage, pushing Iowa ahead 71-65 with 1:18 to go. Braden Frager answered with a second-chance three-pointer from the right corner to cut the Hawkeyes’ lead to three with 58 seconds remaining. Nebraska called timeout.
Out of the timeout, the Huskers put on a full-court press, but Nebraska had only four players on the floor. Alvaro Folgueiras broke open down the floor for an easy dunk and was fouled by Berke Buyuktuncel. Folgueiras hit the ensuing free throw, pushing the lead to 74-68 with 56 seconds to go, and the game was effectively over. Folgueiras added another dunk for good measure on Iowa’s next possession.
The night started so well for Nebraska. Bolstered by hot shooting, the Huskers jumped out to a 12-2 lead three minutes into the contest. Iowa pulled to within two twice around the 13-minutes-to-go mark of the first half, but Nebraska pushed the lead out to 10 again, leading 40-30 with five minutes to go until halftime. But an Iowa 8-0 run shrunk the NU advantage to two, 40-38 with two minutes remaining in the half. A personal 6-0 by Jamarcus Lawrence pushed the lead to 46-38 with just over a minute to go in the half, but the Hawkeyes responded with a 5-0 run to head to halftime cutting Nebraska’s lead to 46-43 going into intermission.
Iowa tied the game for the first time at 50 with 15 minutes to go, then at 53 with 13:51 remaining, then 62 with 6:33 to play, then 65 with five minutes to go. But the Hawkeyes did not take the lead in the game until a Bennett Stirtz three-pointer with 2:10 go pushed Iowa ahead, 68-65, beginning the sequence that ended with the Folguerias’s back-to-back dunks.
The Huskers did a much better job on the glass than they did in the first game against the Hawkeyes, 57-52. In that game, Iowa outrebounded Nebraska by 13. In this game, the Huskers won the rebounding battle, 35-26. But Nebraska, which had been one of the nation’s best in limiting its turnovers, gave it away to Iowa 10 times, and the Hawkeyes converted the giveaways to 20 points. That compares to just five Iowa giveaways for seven NU points. Nebraska also cooled off shooting from the field, hitting 57 percent of its shots in the first half but just 28 percent in the second half.
Pryce Sandfort led the Huskers with 25 points, while Braden Frager added 16. Stirtz led the Hawkeyes with 20 points while Tate Sage added 19 and Folguerias added 16. Cooper Koch tallied 11.
Nebraska’s best men’s basketball season in school history ended with a 28-7, a school record for wins, and the program’s first two NCAA Tournament wins.