Colossal comeback: Hawkeyes rally for 112-106 OT win over Michigan State

IOWA CITY — Tony Perkins flung the basketball skyward in joy at the end of Saturday’s game in Carver-Hawkeye Arena, perhaps offering it as a thank-you gift to the basketball gods.

The Iowa junior guard was no different from thousands of people who attended his team’s 112-106 overtime victory over Michigan State. Not long before the Hawkeyes prevailed, he thought they were beaten.

Some of those fans heard about Iowa’s unreal comeback after they had left the arena. Others watched it from the concourse instead of making the grievous mistake of leaving too soon. Still others went back to their seats in the break between the end of the second half and the start of overtime.

Michigan State made two free throws for a 95-84 lead with 1:06 left in the second half.

Dave Revsine of Big Ten Network said the NCAA told him it was the fourth time a team had ever rallied from 11 points down in the final minute to win, and the first in the last six years.

“I’m not gonna lie,” Perkins said. “I thought the game was over. Probably everybody did.”

The Hawkeyes didn’t act it like it, though, and certainly didn’t shoot like it.

This may read like fiction, but here goes: Iowa made 3-pointers with 39, 32, 21, 10 and 3.3 seconds left in the second half. Connor McCaffery made the first and fourth, Kris Murray the second, and Patrick McCaffery the third.

The fifth was by sophomore forward Payton Sandfort. He didn’t say he knew it was going in when he shot it. He said he knew it when MSU’s A.J. Hoggard missed the second of two free throws with 10 seconds left and the Spartans ahead 101-98.

It was Hoggard’s first miss of a foul shot after 11 straight makes.

How did the Hawkeyes get so many shots? They got one turnover, then quickly fouled Hoggard three times after baskets. He made the first five free throws in that stretch, but missed the sixth.

The Hawkeyes then hustled the ball up the floor, and before the Spartans had a chance to foul anyone to prevent a 3-point try, Sandfort took a handoff from Connor McCaffery and fired from the left-center area of the frontcourt.

He swished it, Hoggard’s last-second half-court heave hit the back of the rim and bounced away, and we had overtime.

Iowa never trailed in the OT after being behind from the 17:51 mark of the second half until Sandfort’s stunner.

The Hawkeyes didn’t try a 3-pointer in the overtime and had no need for one. Perkins rebounded Kris Murray misses for baskets to give Iowa leads of 108-103 and 110-105, the latter with 26 seconds left. That did the trick.

So, the Hawkeyes improved to 10-8 in the Big Ten and 18-11 overall. The Spartans are 9-8 and 17-11.

Michigan State was great for 38 minutes. Guard Tyson Walker had what his coach, Tom Izzo, called “one of the great performances in Big Ten history today if you ask me, as far as this year goes.

“He made shots off the dribble, he made shots off the drive, he made shots from the 3. Tyson Walker was unbelievable.”

Walker scored 32 points and made 11 of 15 shots for a team that shot 59.3 percent from the floor and had 11 more free throw attempts than Iowa, yet lost.

So how did the Hawkeyes do this? Well, 15 offensive rebounds, 10 steals and just nine turnovers sure helped. Murray had 26 points. Sandfort made a career-high six 3-pointers and scored 22 points. Perkins had 24 points, nine rebounds and six assists.

But this win was about a lot more than statistics.

“I’ve been in a lot of games and I’ve coached in this situation before,” said Iowa’s Fran McCaffery. “You get a sense of ‘Are they still fighting? Or is it just me trying to convince them to keep fighting?’

“I didn’t have to convince them.”

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