'Stunning': Michigan State collapses in final minutes, loses to Iowa 112-106 in OT
Matt CharboneauIowa City, Iowa — Tom Izzo pounded his fist on the table in the interview room Saturday afternoon at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, likely because it’s all he had.
That’s because coming up with words to describe what had taken place over the previous two-and-a-half hours was that difficult to explain.
The Spartans tried to sum up the 112-106 overtime loss to Iowa, a game they led by 11 points with 55 seconds to play, becoming just the fourth team in NCAA history to lose in such fashion.
“Stunning,” was how Jaden Akins tried to sum it up.
For Joey Hauser, it was “heartbreaking.”
And Izzo, putting the blame solely on himself, called the spectacular collapse, “piss-poor coaching.”
BOX SCORE: Iowa 112, Michigan State 106, OT
What it really led to was mostly silence. Not in the way it is when a team loses a road game, some standard, run-of-the mill sort of thing that happens to every team in every conference in the country. For the Spartans, it was a group collectively trying to come up with the right words to describe what had just transpired.
“It’s hard,” Hauser said. “You don’t know what to say. The coaches don’t know what to say. We had that game won and it’s such a letdown. It’s kind of a crazy thing and there are mistakes we made that cost us.
“I don’t know what to say. We played well most of that game and just couldn’t finish it.”
It’s a troubling theme this season for the Spartans (17-11, 9-8 Big Ten), who instead of locking down another Quad 1 and potentially a shot at the double-bye in the Big Ten tournament and maybe has good as a 6-seed in the NCAA Tournament, ended up being the fourth team in NCAA history to hold an 11-point lead with a minute to play and lose.
For the better part of 38 minutes, Michigan State was dominant. It was 11-for-13 to that point from 3-point range as Hauser and Jaden Akins were both 4-for-4 and Tyson Walker was 2-for-3. Walker scored 31 on 11-for-15 shooting while Akins had 21, Hauser 18, Malik Hall 16 and A.J. Hoggard 15.
Of course, by the time the game had ended, nobody was talking about the first 38 minutes.
“It was a total breakdown, in all aspects,” Akins said.
Namely, the breakdowns came on the glass as Iowa grabbed four offensive rebounds in the final two minutes, including immediately after Walker’s free throws gave the Spartans a 13-point lead, one that proved not to be insurmountable.
That first bucket was from Tony Perkins to pull Iowa within 11 at 1:49. Hall answered with a pair of free throws at 1:34, but that’s when Iowa’s 3-point barrage began that included six in the final 1:30 of the game. The first was from Payton Sandfort to make it 91-81 in favor of Michigan State. Three seconds ticked off before Hoggard was fouled and made both, pushing the lead to 12 with 1:27 left. That was followed by a miss from Connor McCaffery, but it was rebounded by Kris Murray, who scored and was fouled, converting a three-point play to make it a nine-point game with 1:15 to play.
Michigan State survived an Akins turnover when Perkins missed a three and pushed the lead to 95-84 with 1:06 left on two Akins free throws. Sandfort then made two with 55 seconds left and Akins split at pair at 48 seconds. Nine seconds later, McCaffery hit a deep three to make it, 96-89, in favor of Michigan State. Hall then traveled and Murray missed a three, but an offensive rebound got him a second look and he hit it to pull Iowa within 96-92 with 32 seconds left.
Hoggard hit two free throws three seconds later but a Patrick McCaffery three made it 98-95 with 21 seconds left. Then it was two more free throws from Hoggard at 19 seconds then a triple from Connor McCaffery to make it a three-point game.
Hoggard then went to the line with 10.2 on the clock. He hit the first free throw and was 11-for-11 at that point. The second bounced out and Iowa raced down the court with Sandfort hitting a triple to tie the game at 101 with three seconds left.
“That literally changed the whole outcome of the game,” Hoggard said. “I take the blame for that.”
It was hardly all on Hoggard, though.
As for the notion of fouling up three in the final seconds, Izzo dismissed it, even as Iowa made four 3-pointers in a 29-second span.
“No, I didn’t,” Izzo said. “We were supposed to switch that and we didn’t do that very well.”
Once in the extra session, it was all Iowa, which got a put-back off an offensive rebound with less than 30 seconds to play from Perkins to ice the victory. Murray finished with 26 for Iowa (18-11, 10-8) while Perkins scored 24, Sandfort had 22 and Rebraca 18.
“It was deflating,” Akins said. “They were making every shot and got to overtime. We tried to regroup but it was tough.”
The shots were falling in the first half as Michigan State was 6-for-8 from 3-point range and shot 63% overall in the first 20 minutes. Unfortunately for the Spartans, they also turned the ball over nine times and gave up five offensive rebounds as Iowa took advantage, making six threes of its own as the teams were tied, 42-42, at halftime.
Both teams picked up where they left off to open the second half, but Michigan State started to gain some separation with a 6-0 run that gave the Spartans a 55-49 lead with 16:12 to play after a pair of free throws from Hoggard.
The Spartans then hit three 3-pointers in a row, two coming from Akins, as the teams fired back and forth. The Michigan State lead grew to 68-61 after a free throw from Carson Cooper then extended it to 82-72 after a triple from Hauser then a deep jumper from Walker late in the shot clock after a steal from Hoggard.
The lead eventually grew to 89-76 with 2:03 to play before Iowa stormed back to tie the game in the final seconds and win in overtime.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Hauser said. “Senior leaders like myself have got to step up in those moments and man up. We didn’t get the job done.”
Michigan State now heads into the final week of the regular season looking for answers and trying to overcome the shock of a devastating loss.
“Focus and finish are two Fs for me and I don't know why we didn't but those are things that leaders have got to do,” Izzo said, pounding the table. “I get all this credit for leading. I didn't lead them and we did not finish that game. I take as much responsibility as anybody.
“We did a hell of a job. It should be underscored that 90% of that game we did a hell of a job. But the game is 40 minutes and sometimes it's 45, but it’s never 38. And that’s my responsibility.”
Twitter: @mattcharboneau