Oregon beats Hawkeyes 80-78 in a game that was decided in the last second

IOWA CITY — Iowa had one shot in the final five seconds to tie, another to win. Neither dropped.

Instead, the Hawkeyes men’s basketball team fell for the eighth time in their last 10 games in a spirited, tense, tight Big Ten contest with Oregon Wednesday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Oregon’s 80-78 victory dropped Iowa to 5-10 in the Big Ten, 14-12 overall. The loss was of the cruel variety, with Hawkeye guard Josh Dix missed a driving layup with five seconds left. The rebound went out of bounds, off Oregon’s Keeshawn Barthelemy, but the call was that it was the Ducks’ ball.

Another chance came Iowa’s way after the officials’ video review overturned the original call. Dix’s 3-point try was blocked by Oregon’s Nate Bittle. The carom went to Iowa’s Even Brauns, whose shot at the horn hit the front of the rim. It wasn’t recorded as a field-goal attempt in the box score.

Iowa had gotten the ball with 12.5 seconds left when Brock Harding’s defense forced Jackson Shelstad into stepping out of bounds.

Oregon improved to 8-8 in the Big Ten, 19-8 overall.

Payton Sandfort had 25 points for Iowa. Dix had 19 and Brauns 15, easily topping his previous high of six points as a Hawkeye. Seven-foot senior Nate Bittle led the Ducks with 21 points and 10 rebounds.

In a bitter night for Iowa, Brauns’ performance was something sweet. The fifth-year senior forward from Iowa City played the final 14:40 and played well, scoring 11 points in that time. He did all sorts of screening, defending, battling and moving. He drew six fouls and made 7 of 9 free throws.

Brauns’ basket with 13 seconds left drew his team within 80-78.

In two seasons here after transferring from Belmont of the Missouri Valley Conference, Brauns’ high point total was 6. There have been seven games this season when he didn’t leave the bench.

Wednesday, Brauns looked like the player who had 18 points and 12 rebounds in a game against Illinois State in one of his 30 starts as a junior at Belmont.

“I’m not known as a guy who will get you a ton of points,” Brauns said. “I took what they gave me. Coach (Fran McCaffery) instilled a lot of confidence in me.”

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“He was terrific tonight,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. “I’m really proud of him. He’s an amazing young guy with character through and through. He had every right to be frustrated with his playing time.”

“It’s been really hard,” Brauns said. “It’s been hard to keep my confidence, honestly.

“I had averaged 25 minutes a game (at Belmont) to playing two. I’m just thankful a lot of people believe in me. I was never going to quit. I showed up every day ready to go.”

Once Owen Freeman was ruled out for the season after finger surgery two weeks ago, Brauns factored more in the Hawkeyes’ rotation.

“He has tremendous athletic ability,” said McCaffery. “He gives us another weapon moving forward.”

No one led by more than four points in the game’s final eight minutes.

Oregon broke a 20-20 deadlock midway through the first half and led the rest of the half, by as much as 10 points. It was 45-37 at halftime.

The Hawkeyes rallied to tie the game with 14:48 left. It had three brief leads in the second half, the last one with 2:59 remaining.

Iowa’s next game is here Saturday at 3 p.m. against Washington.

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