The Hawkeyes regroup against the Seminoles in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.
By Kyle Mann
Fran McCaffery and the Hawkeyes hosted Florida State in Carver-Hawkeye on Wednesday night and came out with a 78-75 overtime victory.
On paper, one could gather that the Seminoles are big — they have three 7-footers — and that they are talented, signing the third-ranked recruiting class of 2015. On the floor, well, it was all translating to on-court success for the Seminoles in the early going.
Five-star freshman Dwayne Bacon scored the game’s first 4 points, with his second bucket coming on a lay-up through contact. A few minutes later, another lay-up through a Mike Gesell foul put Florida State ahead, 10-4, and confirmed that the Seminoles would enjoy a significant athletic advantage in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge matchup.
And it didn’t just apply to Bacon. Even with starting center 7-1, 304-pound Michael Ojo sidelined with a knee injury, the Florida State frontcourt still includes 7-3 Boris Bojanovsky and 7-4 Chris Koumadje, both of whom have fluid feet and respectable leaping ability.
“That’s probably going to be the most [athleticism] we see all year throughout the whole Big Ten and all,” Anthony Clemmons said. “But that team’s unbelievably good.”
As such, the already rebounding-challenged Hawkeyes struggled mightily to corral missed shots. Iowa weathered the early storm and with six minutes remaining in the half trailed only 21-18, but they were clearly being outplayed. The Hawkeyes had been outrebounded 19-12 and had surrendered 9 offensive rebounds.
“We talked about the fact that we are playing an incredibly athletic team,” McCaffery said. “When they hit us first, jumped us 11-4, we didn’t panic. We hung in there.”
A 3 by Jarrod Uthoff just inside the six-minute mark tied the game at 21 and confirmed that the Hawkeyes weren’t intimidated. Adam Woodbury followed with a lay-up to take a 23-21 lead, then stole the ball at midcourt to assist on a Peter Jok lay-in.
The teams had established their respective identities and played a closely contested remainder of the half. Iowa struggled physically but shot 44 percent compared to 35 percent for the Seminoles, and Florida State used its athleticism and tempo to secure a 32-31 advantage at halftime.
The second half began with Iowa using a steal for a lay-up to take the lead, followed by a Seminole fast break to take it back. The teams had settled into a back-and-forth game, with neither team able to take a significant advantage.
As minutes whittled away under 10 minutes, however, the Hawkeyes saw their half-court offense become stagnant, and with every miss, the Seminoles were off and running the other way. Inside the penultimate media time-out, Florida State had laid claim to a 55-54 advantage.
Predictably, however, the lead changedhands several more times, and with Iowa leading 60-58 with three and a half minutes to go, the stage was set for a must-see finish.
Woodbury grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled with two minutes remaining, and a pair of free throws broke a 60-60 tie. After trips by both teams to the charity stripe, the score stood 63-61 with 49 seconds to go. After forcing a bad shot from distance, an offensive rebound and a foul allowed Florida State to tie the game at 63 and force overtime.
The game remained close into overtime but after then falling behind, 72-71, a Peter Jok 3 with 26 seconds remaining gave Iowa a 74-72 lead. Several late free throws and a wild Seminole 3-pointer pushed the game to its 78-75 final.
“[Coach Fran McCaffery] came to me and said, ‘We’re going to run the play for you, and you’re going to make it,’ ” Jok said. “I said, ‘I’m going to make it,’ so I just went out there and made it.”
Jok led the Hawkeyed with a game-high 24 points, and Jarrod Uthoff chipped in 15. Woodbury finished with a double-double, 11 points and 10 rebounds.
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