Sound familiar? Iowa's desperation pass at Northwestern falls incomplete

EVANSTON, Ill. - Iowa had one shot at a desperation 3-pointer, and the Hawkeyes had the right man to make it happen.

Iowa freshman Zach McCabe, an all-state quarterback at Sioux City Heelan, stood under the Northwestern basket with the Hawkeyes trailing by three points with 3.3 seconds left. McCabe launched pass to Iowa's free-throw line, where Iowa senior Jarryd Cole caught the ball and tried to pass it back to guard Jordan Stoermer.

Cole couldn't get the ball to Stoermer and it instead ended up in Northwestern guard Drew Crawford's arms as time expired, sealing Northwestern's 73-70 win over Iowa last night at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

“I thought we had a chance there, especially when (Northwestern guard Juice) Thompson missed the first (free throw),” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. “Zach's obviously a high school quarterback, so he made a nice throw but a little bit over Jarryd's head, unfortunately. Jarryd tried to catch it and throw it to Jordan.”

“We call it a tip play,” Cole said. “The whole idea was to throw it long. We had three seconds on the clock. I could have grabbed it, brought it down and found somebody to throw it to, but I didn't catch the ball. Zach made a great pass; I couldn't come down with the ball and we ended up losing.”

Northwestern Coach Bill Carmody wouldn't reveal if he would have fouled an Iowa shooter if a shot was imminent.

“I'm not telling everything,” Carmody said.

The loss - Iowa's third straight to Northwestern - dropped the Hawkeyes to 10-15 overall (3-11 in Big Ten). Northwestern improves to 15-10 overall (5-9 Big Ten).

After a horrendous start, Iowa rallied late in the first half to make the game competitive. The Wildcats stormed to a 22-9 lead, aided by five 3-point baskets. McCaffery yanked his starters off the floor just 4:04 into the game and replaced them with five bench players.

“I took a timeout prior to the substitutions and I tried to get my message across then,” McCaffery said. “I didn't feel I was successful so I decided to go ahead and make the wholesale changes.

“We weren't getting out of our starters what we wanted to at the start of this game.”

After the teams traded 3-pointers, Iowa (10-15, 3-10 Big Ten) went on a 25-10 run. McCabe, who scored a combined four points in the last three games, finished the half with 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting.

Northwestern continued to bury Iowa from the perimeter in the second half. The Wildcats hit 12 3-pointers and extended their lead to seven points at 69-62 with 3:01 left in the game. Iowa rallied to pull within 72-70 with 5.2 seconds left. Northwestern's Thompson was fouled with 3.3 seconds left, missed the first free throw before hitting the second to extend the game to its final margin.

Iowa hit 51.7 percent of its shots from the floor and had five players in double figures. Cole led all scorers with 17 points and also had eight rebounds. Melsahn Basabe had 13 points, while Bryce Cartwright had 10 points and nine assists.

Thompson led Northwestern with 16 points, while John Shurna and Crawford each scored 15.