Game Story: Iowa Reaches Title Game

Hawkeyes Knock Off Indiana in Exciting Fashion Saturday at B1G Tournament

INDIANAPOLIS — Add this one to a career of big shots.

Heck, it’s the biggest.

And as Iowa’s March march continues, the legend of Jordan Bohannon’s last-second 3-pointer to send the Hawkeyes into the Big Ten tournament championship will grow.

Bohannon’s banked-in three with 1.1 second left gave Iowa an 80-77 win in Saturday’s semifinal at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, putting the Hawkeyes into Sunday’s championship game for the first time since 2006.

“Something that can't even be put into words,” Bohannon said. “You dream about it as a little kid, throwing up shots in the backyard, throwing up shots at the local YMCA when you're a kid and hoping one day you get to this stage.”

He’s been on this stage for a long time. It’s Bohannon’s sixth season, 177 games, and the winning shot was the 452nd 3-pointer of his career.

The Hoosiers have seen these shots before. So has the rest of the Big Ten.

His teammates know, too.

“To be honest, I thought it was going in the whole way,” forward Patrick McCaffery said. “It looked good to me, from my vantage point. Jordan’s made big shots his whole life, so it was something that was really cool. You get flooded with emotions. Mine was like, ‘Holy (expletive).’”

But even all of that experience didn’t prepare Bohannon for his celebratory reaction — a circular run around the court as the Hoosiers called a timeout.

“I was running in circles, I didn't know where to go because I was so excited,” Bohannon said. “To be in that moment, it's been so much fun.”

“He really didn’t know what exactly to do in that situation,” McCaffery said, smiling. “He just chose to run around.”

The last of Bohannon’s three 3-pointers in the final 2:25 came as Iowa coach Fran McCaffery thought about calling a timeout as the Hoosiers had defended the original play call, which was a Bohannon shot from the corner.

No matter, McCaffery said.

“As long as he's shooting it, it's probably better than anything I could have drawn up anyway,” he said, smiling.

Time was ticking away when Bohannon popped to the top of the offense, getting the pass from Connor McCaffery. Bohannon is 6-foot-1, and was guarded by Indiana’s Trey Galloway, who is three inches taller.

Bohannon got the shot away, and when it bounced in, Galloway put his head down, hands on his knees, the air of the Hoosiers sucked away.

“I saw he was pretty well defended and he was almost like probably four, five feet away from half court, so I knew he was going to hoist one up,” said Indiana forward Trayce Jackson-Davis, who led the Hoosiers with 31 points. “I thought it was going to be long and then it banked in and sometimes that's what happens. It's March. So, obviously, March Madness. It's a crazy, crazy time of year.”

The Hawkeyes, who have won 11 of their last 13 games, haven’t been squeezed by the crucible of February and March. They have come to this tournament and knocked down everyone in front of them — the rout of Northwestern on Thursday, the complete control of Rutgers on Friday, and now this win, when they came from eight points down with 4:18 to play.

“You’ve watched us this year,” Patrick McCaffery said. “It’s just kind of the group we have. It’s the team we have. We have a lot of resilient guys.”

Bohannon wasn’t a factor until the end. He has missed six of his first seven shots, then made his last three — a 3-pointer that tied the game at 71 with 2:25 to go, another one that gave Iowa a 77-73 lead with 51 seconds left, and then the game winner.

“I really didn't get a lot going, honestly, into the game,” Bohannon said. “I was just trying to play my game and wait for the game to come to me. You know, something my dad always would tell me when I was little, you know, when things aren't going, don't try to force the issue, just continue playing your game and good things will always happen.”

It was a flurry of threes in that closing one by Iowa, including the eighth of the game from forward Keegan Murray, who led the Hawkeyes with 32 points.

Bohannon saw how many threes Murray had made when looking at the final box score in the post-game press conference, and laughed with his teammate as someone asked him a question.

Jordan? Jordan?

“I saw Keegan had eight threes,” Bohannon said. “No one said anything about it. I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. that's insane.’”

Murray has been devastating in this tournament, with 84 points in three games, nine away from breaking the all-time tournament mark.

“He's a load,” Indiana coach Mike Woodson said. “I mean, there's just nothing he can't do with the basketball in his hand.”

The same can be said for Bohannon, when the ball is in his hand at the end of games.

A long career is near its end, and he’s not done.

“I can't even put into words the amount of times I was throwing up those kind of shots in the backyard with my brothers,” Bohannon said. “I could never get in the paint because they would just foul me so much, I just had to shoot those shots.”

Those shots are all part of the legend.

Add one more.