Iowa pulled off an incredible comeback on Saturday against Michigan State.
After back-to-back ugly losses on the roads, things were looking bleak again for Iowa. The Hawkeyes trailed MSU 91-78 with just 1:34 left in regulation.
At that point, Iowa had no choice but to start making three. For a team that was a combined 6 of 52 from long range in its previous two games, that didn’t seem like a recipe for a comeback.
This time, however, the shots were falling at an incredible rate. The Hawkeyes made six of their last nine 3-point attempts in the final 90 seconds of regulation to miraculously force overtime even as Michigan State made most of its free throws.
As the home crowd went wild, Iowa beat MSU 11-5 in overtime to emerge with an unlikely 112-106 victory.
It was a crazy turn of events.
Michigan State had a double-digit lead in the final minute
MSU had a 10-point lead with 48 seconds left but just couldn’t stop on defense.
Iowa’s Connor McCaffery hit a triple at the 39-second mark to put MSU ahead 96-89. And after forcing a turnover, Kris Murray followed it up with a three of his own in the 30th second to cut MSU’s lead to 96-92.
After a pair of free throws from MSU’s AJ Hoggard, Patrick McCaffery drilled one from the top of the arc to make it 98-95 with 20 seconds left. Iowa was still committing a foul and Hoggard sank two more to make it 100-95.
On the ensuing possession, Connor McCaffery hit another to cut MSU’s lead to 100-98 with 10 seconds left. MSU then handed the ball to Hoggard. This time, however, he shared the free throws.
MSU’s lead was 101-98 and the ball was back in Iowa’s hands. This set the stage for Payton Sandfort to send the game into overtime.
It looked like Michigan State was trying to foul to put Iowa on the line and avoid another 3-pointer. Instead, the Spartans missed a switch on defense, allowing Connor McCaffery to send the ball to Sandfort via a dribble pass.
Sandfort, of course, drilled it.
From there, Iowa completely controlled the extra session and was able to emerge victorious.
Michigan State hit as high as 99.8% on ESPN’s win probability metric in the final minute, but Iowa pulled off a comeback for the ages.
Murray led the way for Iowa, posting 26 points and eight rebounds. He was one of five double-digit Iowa players. Tony Perkins had 24 points, including two overtime clutch losses. Sandfort had 22 on the bench, including 6 of 10 from downtown.
With the win, Iowa snapped that two-game losing streak and improved to 18-11 overall and 10-8 in Big Ten play. MSU fell to 17-11 (9-8 Big Ten).
Brutal beat for Michigan State bettors
If you had the money on Michigan State in this game, you may never encounter a worse beating.
Iowa opened as a 4.5-point favorite and was quickly bet down to a 5.5-point favorite. This means that if you bet Michigan State +5.5, you would win your bet if MSU won the game or lost by five points or less.
Usually when a 5.5 point underdog is up 13 points with 94 seconds left in regulation time, you’re in a pretty good spot.
And even when the game went to overtime, MSU bettors had a semblance of hope even with all the momentum on the Iowa side.
Overtime is rarely a friend to an underdog bettor, and it turned out to be the case again. Perkins hit two free throws with 19 seconds left in overtime to give Iowa a 112-106 lead. It was the first time Iowa had a six-point lead since the 8:25 mark of the first half.
On the ensuing possession, MSU’s Malik Hall hit a disputed three and missed. Iowa got the rebound and dribbled past the win 112-106, covering the gap by half a point.
Yeah.
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