(Houston, TX) — Iowa’s incredible NCAA Tournament ended in the Elite Eight as conference rival Illinois advanced to the Final Four in a 71-59 win on Saturday night.
In the end, the Illini had too much size than the Hawkeyes and Iowa only shot 23 percent from the floor in the 2nd half. Illinois dominated the boards 38 to 21 and had 16 offensive rebounds to just 8 for Iowa. Points in the paint was one sided — 40 to 12 in favor of the Illini.
Iowa was leading 51-50 but Illinois took control of the game with an 8-0 run. After Isaia Howard made 1-2 free throws for the Hawkeyes, Zvonimir Ivisic converted an alley opp dunk to make it 60-52 Illinois with 4:12 left. After an Iowa timeout, Howard drilled a wide open three. However, Iowa could not get a stop on the defensive end — Andrej Stojakovic got it inside for a lay-up and converted the three point play. That was a killer for the Hawkeyes as the lead went back up to 8 — 63-55 with 3:16 to go.
The Hawkeyes could not make a shot down the stretch — after the Howard triple, Iowa missed their last 7 shots including 0-5 on their threes, many were desperation shots by Bennett Stirtz.
Illinois (28-8) advances to the their first Final Four in 21 years and was led by Keaton Wagler with 25 points including 7-7 from the free throw line; Stojakovic had 17 points off the bench and Ivisic added 13 points. David Mirkovic had 9 points and 12 rebounds.
Iowa (24-13) was led by Stirtz with 24 points on 8-17 shooting and 4 of 11 from three point land. Tate Sage added 10 including 2 of 3 on his threes.
Seniors on the Hawkeyes include Stirtz, Tavion Banks, and Brendan Hausen.
