Hawkeyes rally from huge first-half hole, stave off Indiana, 91-89

IOWA CITY — Carver-Hawkeye Arena was a caldron Thursday night, a boiling pot of anger and frustration and excitement and tension for the Iowa men’s basketball team and a crowd of 11,916.

And finally, elation.

The Hawkeyes rallied from a 21-point first-half deficit and held on during a ferocious final few minutes for a 91-89 men’s basketball win over No. 15 Indiana.

The Hoosiers led 84-78 with 3:42 left, but Iowa scored the next nine points and didn’t trail again. Kris Murray and Payton Sandfort made two free throws apiece in the final 10 seconds for the Hawkeyes, 9-6 overall and 1-3 in the Big Ten. Indiana is 10-4, 1-2.

The game ended with Murray flinging the ball toward the roof after catching a long inbounds pass from Connor McCaffery.

“Tom Brady, Randy Moss,” Murray said.

It wasn’t Iowa’s first option, but it was a good one. From the baseline at the Indiana end and 3.9 seconds left and Iowa up two points, McCaffery let the ball fly. Murray caught it in the frontcourt, then let it fly himself, skyward.

After three straight bruising losses, the Hawkeyes had a victory that looked highly unlikely when the Hoosiers blasted to a 28-7 lead in the game’s first seven minutes. They were surgical during a 15-0 run that included three straight dunks.

Iowa came back to within five points before trailing 50-40 at halftime. Indiana’s lead grew to 13 early in the second half, but a Murray 3-pointer tied the affair at 61 with 12:17 left, and the rest was fang-and-claw.

Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery got a technical foul in the first half, and appeared to get a second in the second half when he went all the way down to the Indiana bench.

Hoosiers associate head coach Yasir Rosemond was talking to an official during a dead ball situation. McCaffery got into a shouting match with Rosemond. He was given another technical, but it was reversed for undetermined reasons.

"That's bull****,“ Indiana Coach Mike Woodson said. ”You can print that one. Because when you let coaches come across half-court into your space, that's bull****. It is."

Asked about a second technical being called on McCaffery, Woodson replied “They did call a tech and they pulled it back, which is bull****t. Guy should have been thrown out of the god**** game."

Connor McCaffery followed his coach to the sideline before getting pulled back by Iowa assistant coach Courtney Eldridge, with an assist from Murray.

There was basketball played amid all the emotion. Iowa didn’t panic when it was down 21 points and looking incapable of stopping Indiana from easy hoops.

“The biggest mistake teams make in a situation like that, you always hear us say, don't try to get it back all at once,” Fran McCaffery said. “What does that mean? You start quick shooting the ball, you start taking an inordinate amount of 3s, and then now they're running it back and they're dunking the ball and all of a sudden 21 becomes 31 and you have no shot.

“I was just really pleased with our composure at that point.”

McCaffery said Iowa’s best defensive moment of the night was holding Indiana with no good look on a possession, only for Jalen Hood-Schifino to catch a desperate heave by Trayce Jackson-Davis air ball after being trapped near the 3-point line. Hood-Schifino laid the ball in the basket for an 84-78 lead.

Instead being deflated about rotten luck on that play, Connor McCaffery drove and was fouled, and made two free throws to start a 9-0 Iowa run for a lead it kept. Twice in the final 10 seconds, Iowa fouled a Hoosier rather than allow 3-point attempts that could have tied the score.

This was the third-straight game the Hawkeyes trailed by double-digits at halftime, but this time they erased the entire deficit and then some.

Neither team was at full-strength, but you wouldn’t have guessed it from the effort and offensive efficiency. Iowa played its first game without starting forward Patrick McCaffery, who is on a leave of absence for health reasons.

Indiana was without starting point guard Xavier Johnson (foot injury) and lost starting forward Race Thompson to a knee injury late in the first half after scoring nine points.

“I thought he had his legs taken out from under him,'' Woodson said. "No call. It's a bad play, it really is.''

Murray had 30 points, 21 in the second half. It was his second straight 30-point performance, and third in his last five starts. He played all 40 minutes for the second consecutive game.

Filip Rebraca added 19 points and Connor McCaffery 16. Payton Sandfort scored seven points in the span of 2:02 as the Hawkeyes began digging out of their first-half hole.

Jackson-Davis scored 30 points for the Hoosiers. Freshman guard Hood-Schifino had 21 points and 9 assists.

“We kind of got our swag back,” Rebraca said. His team will need more of it Sunday when it plays Rutgers (11-4, 3-1) in New Jersey at 11 a.m. (CT).

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com