Iowa-Wisconsin: Same shot, same spot, different result for Bryce Cartwright

IOWA CITY - Bryce Cartwright had the same shot in the same spot as his last game-winner. This time the Iowa junior couldn't connect.

Cartwright missed a baseline jumper with 2 seconds left in regulation - the same shot he hit to beat Indiana by one point last Saturday - to force overtime against No. 13 Wisconsin. In overtime, the Badgers sank a pair of early 3-pointers and held off a late charge to outlast the Hawkeyes 62-59 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“Same play, same shot,” Cartwright said after the game. “I thought it was in when it left my hands too. I'm going to be thinking about it for a while.”

“It was right in,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. “In and out, so we got the shot we wanted there.”

The lead changed nine times between the rivals and the outcome came down in part to a controversial call on the last possession. Wisconsin led by two points when point guard Jordan Taylor missed a jumper. After a mad scramble for the rebound, Badgers guard Josh Gasser came up with the ball, and the Badgers called timeout. On the inbound pass, Taylor leapt for the ball and came down with it leaning backward. One official called traveling; the other called a foul on Cartwright. The foul stood, and Taylor went to the free-throw line.

“The last one where he got roped, he got horse-collared? That's why they have three officials,” Wisconsin Coach Bo Ryan said. “The guy closest to it had an angle, and the other guy has an angle.

“They're allowed to do that if it's the right call. The fans didn't think it was. Could you imagine if they had games and they did like a fan thing with the noise meter if they thought a call was a good call?”

McCaffery accepted the official explanation.

“(The official) said that - I can't remember if it was Devyn (Marble) or Bryce - hit him in the head,” McCaffery said. “So he said he saw it clearly and he hit him in the head.”

Taylor made 1 of 2 free throws to give the Badgers a three-point lead with 7.6 seconds left. Cartwright moved up the floor but took an off-balance 3-point attempt that was short at the buzzer.

Although the Hawkeyes had three timeouts remaining, McCaffery allowed the team to finish without a break.

“I don't usually do that (call a timeout),” McCaffery said. “We had a play called. In retrospect, I don't remember how much time was left when Bryce shot it, probably only about two seconds. He didn't push it quickly enough. We did not execute the play correctly.

“I'd like to have gotten a better shot there.”

Iowa (10-14, 3-9 Big Ten) led 23-18 at halftime, in part because of Wisconsin's offensive ineptitude. The Badgers hit just 6 of 33 shots and were 2-of-16 from 3-point range. After battering the Hawkeyes on the boards early by grabbing nine rebounds in the first five minutes, Wisconsin finished with 22 by halftime.

Iowa struggled midway through the second half when the Badgers put up a 15-6 run to take a 41-37 lead. But Iowa rallied with a 12-2 run to go up 49-43.

The Hawkeyes took a 53-51 lead on a pair of Matt Gatens free throws but two possessions later Taylor hit a jumper with 28 seconds left that ultimately send the game to overtime.

Wisconsin's Jon Leuer, the Big Ten's reigning player of the week, hit just 2-of-10 from the field and had three turnovers in the first half. But he finished with 19 points and 15 rebounds and had four assists. Taylor, the national leader in assist-to-turnover ratio, had 16 points, eight assists and two turnovers.

Iowa's Melsahn Basabe and Jarryd Cole each had their six double-double of the season. Cartwright finished with a team-high 14 points.

The loss ended Iowa's two-game Big Ten win streak, the team's longest since 2007. It also cuts Iowa's series lead between the schools to 77-76.