Iowa basketball: Bohannon leads improbable comeback vs Wildcats

The Iowa basketball team pulled off an improbable comeback against the Northwestern Wildcats last night capped by a buzzer-beating game-winning three.

Last night was truly one of the best comebacks I have ever seen by an Iowa basketball team. Despite entering the game as 10-point favorites, the Hawks needed every single second of last night’s contest at Carver Hawkeye Arena to pull off a win, and for 37 minutes, it looked more likely that the Hawks would be losing their 6th game of the season.

Nobody could argue that this game was pretty or even that the Hawks deserved to win, but good teams find ways to win even when nothing is going well. More importantly, great players find ways to make plays when the game is on the line. Both happened last night.

Center Luka Garza, wrapped up in foul trouble most of the night, couldn’t get anything going and contributed exactly 0 points and 1 rebound in 17 minutes of play while Tyler Cook missed 8 of his 13 shot attempts, most of which were close to the basket shots. Cook did, however, manage to finish with 19 points and 11 rebounds.

The real stories for 37 minutes of the game were how dominant of a performance Northwestern forward Vic Law had as he scored 24 points on 9 of 14 shooting and how the Iowa basketball team continually found ways to miss easy layups. For both teams, foul trouble was a huge issue. Northwestern had three guys with four fouls and Garza couldn’t keep himself off the bench.

What happened in the final three minutes though was truly incredible.

With the Iowa basketball team down 74-62 with just under three minutes remaining, Jordan Bohannon took over the game in what could be one of the defining moments of his career. He scored 11 of his 15 points in the final three minutes of the game ultimately ending with him making a go-ahead three-pointer with .6 seconds remaining on the clock.

In between that time, the Iowa basketball team relied on a fantastic full-court press defense to put pressure on the Northwestern offense and create turnovers in addition to a timely three-pointer and a lay up by budding star freshman Joe Wieskamp. Junior guard Isaiah Moss also contributed to the Hawks 18-5 run in the final three minutes by playing high intelligence basketball and driving to the lane for a lay up with just 16 seconds left to bring the game to within one instead of taking a three.

This would ultimately set up this incredible moment.

Needless to say, I was jumping around in my living room with excitement, and the rest of Twitter was blowing up.

It certainly wasn’t the way we expected it to go, but what an ending to the Iowa basketball team’s 19th win of the season.

Next up, the Hawks head to New Jersey to take on Rutgers Saturday.