Iowa Basketball: Hawkeyes Win Thriller Over Temple

The Iowa Basketball team won a knock-down, drag out contest with Temple Friday afternoon on an Adam Woodbury tip-in at the buzzer in overtime.

Survive and advance. That’s all that matters in March basketball. Iowa came in as a slight favorite against 10th seeded Temple, but as we have found out, anything can happen in March.

Iowa was dominant early on, hitting nearly everything they tossed up and raced out to a 30-18 lead 10 minutes into the game. Temple is more of a defensive-oriented team and for the rest of the game, they lived up to that style.

Temple used a 13-0 run fueled by Quenton DeCosey to get back into the game, and after the two teams traded baskets late in the first half, Iowa went into halftime up 38-37. Much like the first half, Iowa came out as the better team in the second half, going on an 11-4 run to take a 49-41 lead. Temple kept inching closer but Iowa maintained a lead throughout the half.

Though it only scored 13 points, Iowa got good production from its bench. Dom Uhl scored seven points and grabbed four rebounds. Christian Williams, Nicholas Baer, and Ahmad Wagner chipped in a basket apiece. Jaylen Bond kept Temple in the game, grabbing 15 rebounds in addition to his 14 points.

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Iowa led the game 59-53 at the under four minute TV timeout, and from there it was what you would expect from this team late in the game. The offense consisted mostly of Mike Gesell dribbling for 25 seconds, and either him, Jarrod Uthoff, or Peter Jok taking a contested shot. Oh, also the poor free throw shooting reared its ugly head as well.

Peter Jok split free throws twice down the stretch, the second of which gave Iowa a 63-60 lead with 8 seconds left. From there, Anthony Clemmons fouled DeCosey shooting a three with 2.1 seconds left. DeCosey hit all three free throws, tying the game and sending it to overtime.

In overtime, Iowa played some great defense, and with the team down 68-66, Peter Jok had a huge three-point play. Brown tied the game at 70 with about 50 seconds left and Uthoff missed a shot on the ensuing possession, and was called for a loose ball foul, sending Daniel Dingle to the line for Temple with 22 seconds remaining.

Dingle, a 55 percent free throw shooter who was shooting with his off hand due to an injured wrist, missed the front end of a 1-and-1 badly, Iowa got the rebound, and set up for the final possession. Gesell had a wild drive to the basket, and thankfully Woodbury was waiting underneath the hoop, caught the airball and put it in to give the Hawkeyes the victory.

Uthoff and Jok were good early, but Woodbury was probably the biggest reason why Iowa won this game, and not just because of the obvious fact that he had the game winner.

Woodbury kept multiple possessions alive late in the game, by either grabbing rebounds or tapping the ball out to his teammates. He also went 2-2 from the line in overtime, after Iowa continuously went 1-2 down the stretch.

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It wasn’t easy, it rarely is in March, but the fact of the matter is that Iowa was able to win and are moving on. Iowa will take on 2nd seeded Villanova on Sunday. The game time has not been announced yet.

Iowa will be looking to make its first Sweet 16 appearance since the 1998-99 season, Tom Davis’ last at Iowa. Stay locked in to Dear Old Gold for constant coverage of the Iowa Hawkeyes.