Iowa shocks No. 12 North Carolina

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Mike Gesell stepped to the free-throw line with 1 second remaining to erase the doubt and anguish that has gripped the Iowa men's basketball program over the past two seasons.

Gesell dribbled and shot. The ball hung near the rim. It dropped. Good. The second one ... swish.

With two shots and a final buzzer, Gesell and the Hawkeyes took what appeared impossible and closed out No. 12 North Carolina 60-55 at the Dean Smith Center last night in an Big Ten-ACC Challenge game. The victory sent the Hawkeye bench and fans into a celebration as Coach Fran McCaffery walked stoically to shake Tar Heels Coach Roy Williams' hand. The locker room scene was just as spectacular to center Adam Woodbury.

'I don't know if I can even explain it,” Iowa center Adam Woodbury said. 'There was a lot of happiness.”

Those thrills were because of Gesell, long considered North Carolina point guard Marcus Paige's understudy. The two remains best of friends from their several years of playing side-by-side in AAU basketball. Paige, a Marion native, has become an All-American. Gesell has struggled at times and shot just 26.2 percent from the floor before the game this year.

Gesell didn't change his approach, but the junior came out gunning. He scored nine of Iowa's first 24 points and paced the Hawkeyes to a 24-16 lead. But he became instrumental late in the game with the game tied 55-55.

With a slight opening to the right of the basket, Gesell blazed through the hole. He put up a shot off the glass and drew contact from Isaiah Hicks. The basket counted, and Gesell drilled the ensuing free throw to give Iowa a 58-55 lead with 1:16 left in the game.

'The shot clock was starting to run down a little bit,” Gesell said. 'We called a ball-screen play. I figured I wanted to make a play, make a strong move to the basket, maybe draw a defender and kick or something. I felt like I could get all the way to the rim, and I knew the shot blocker was coming so I had to get it high off the glass, and I was able to sneak it in there.”

North Carolina sprinted down the floor. But with 50 seconds left, Iowa's Anthony Clemmons drew a charge on Paige to give Iowa the ball. The Hawkeyes couldn't score on their next possession, and the Tar Heels took over with 13 seconds left. Paige took a 3-point shot on the right perimeter and missed with five seconds left. Woodbury grabbed the rebound. After an Iowa timeout with two seconds remaining, Gesell was fouled one second later.

'I knew I had to make one of two,” he said. 'That first one, it wasn't pretty, but sometimes you need those. It felt good to get that one. Once that one went in, it was kind of a sigh of relief. It was kind of like we pulled off our first road win this year, and it felt good. This is a very good North Carolina ball team we beat.”

Gesell finished with 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting. He played 34 minutes in his best game as a Hawkeye. Paige scored 13 points but struggled from the field, making just 4 of 16 shots.

'I think it's great for him because he played real well,” Woodbury said. 'Throughout AAU he was always getting compared to (Paige), fairly and unfairly. I think he showed that he's his own player and does his thing.”

'I thought (Gesell) was tremendous,” McCaffery said. 'He got us off to a great start, which is critical when you come into a place like this. he was aggressive. We were concerned about their pressure, about their trapping, so you need your point guard to play that aggressively and with that much control. It settles everybody down.”

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