Nebraska splashes 14 3-pointers in first road win over Iowa since 2012

Say a team gives up 21 points off turnovers, 31 points after offensive rebounds and 31 points to the opposing team’s bench. How in the heck do you win that game?

Nebraska did. Beat Iowa 81-77, no less. Swept the season series, even, by beating the Hawkeyes at their own game: Hitting three-pointers. Fourteen, to be exact — NU’s most against a power conference team in two years. Splash, splash, splash, upset. It was the most improbable game in an improbable stretch during which NU won six of its last eight games — including Quad 1 victories — with a roster missing its three best defensive players.

How do you do that? Nebraska did that.

“It felt like it was a complete 40 (minutes) today,” Husker senior guard Sam Griesel said on NU’s postgame radio show. He hit three of those trios and finished with 16 points. “Every game, there’s going to be times when we’re going to mess up, but it’s all about resiliency and the togetherness with this group.”

Because Penn State hit a buzzer-beating layup to stun Maryland earlier Sunday, the Huskers are locked into the No. 11 seed for the Big Ten Tournament. On Wednesday night, they’ll play Minnesota, which lost twice to Nebraska this season. So did NCAA Tourney-bound Iowa, which, like its football team, saw Senior Day spoiled rotten by the rivals west of the Missouri River.

“Those were obviously some games I really wanted when I committed here,” Griesel said of the Iowa wins and one at Creighton in December. “It feels amazing.”

And after the Huskers (16-15, 9-11) had made all the shots, they had a little defense and a little rebounding. Nebraska held Iowa without a field goal for the last 6:21 of the game. The Hawkeyes hit six free throws, but clearly tired of launching long jumpers — they made 12 threes, but missed 25 more — and having to crash the boards just to score. Iowa took 74 shots and made only 27.

Nebraska took 53 — and made 31, shooting 58.5% from the field. NU started hot — making four of its first five threes to forge an 18-9 lead – and stayed that way through every turnover and missed defensive board in the opening 35 minutes.

As Iowa used future NBA lottery pick Kris Murray to follow Keisei Tominaga everywhere he went, Jamarques Lawrence — continuing a late-season bloom — hit five threes, including a long one to give Nebraska a 73-71 lead. Sam Hoiberg and C.J. Wilcher made two each in the second half. Even Wilhelm Breidenbach, his offensive confidence up and down all season, made a trio as part of a nine-point performance. Derrick Walker, in a consummate performance, had nine points, 12 rebounds and eight assists, coming alive late as a scorer.

The Hawkeyes (19-12, 11-9) were led by Murray — 22 points, seven rebounds — and Patrick McCaffrey, who had 23 points, hitting six threes off the bench. Fran McCaffrey’s bunch made just 1 of its last 10 shots.

For two hours, the teams traded shots like boxers would blows, possessions lasting only a handful of seconds. The Huskers led 18-9 after seven minutes. Iowa splashed three straight three-pointers — and got a traditional three-point play from Murray, as part of a blink-and-you’ll-miss 12-0 run that gave the Hawkeyes a 21-18 advantage.

Griesel had 14 points in the first half, bettering his season scoring average, while Iowa’s height among guards and wings helped it secure nine first-half offensive rebounds, which led to 17 second-chance points in the opening 20 minutes. The Hawkeyes added 24 bench points, as McCaffrey drilled five three-pointers and Payton Sandfort hit two of his own.

Iowa led 43-39 at the break and kept pouring on the second-chance points in the second half.

Nebraska didn’t back down, hitting three after three. Lawrence splashed three, Wilcher and Breidenbach made one each and Hoiberg hit a couple — including one that gave NU its first lead of the second half.

With 4:06 left, Murray missed a three, Wilcher rebounded, and tied 73-all, the endgame was on.

Wilcher threaded through the defense for a layup and a 75-73 lead. Murray answered with two free throws. Six seconds later, Wilcher made a spin move and another layup for a 77-75 edge. Then, Wilcher hit a three on a Walker pass out of traffic. From there, Nebraska locked in.

“When we got a little bit physicality to us,” Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said, “it made all the difference in the world.”

Iowa missed the front end of a 1-and-1 free throw and two more after a shooting foul. Then Sam Hoiberg took a charge on Connor McCaffrey with 16.4 seconds left. He missed the front end of a 1-and-1, but the Hawkeyes only got off one shot in the final 15 seconds. Fred Hoiberg credited Iowa’s remarkable success against Michigan State — when the Hawkeyes hit five threes in the final minute — as a good teaching tape for the Huskers, who denied Iowa a No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament.

“It did not look like we were going to win that game on the defensive end, but we made some huge plays,” Hoiberg said.

So Nebraska goes to Chicago as the Big Ten’s hottest team. In its final six wins, the Huskers beat five teams either headed to the NCAA Tournament or on the bubble to do so. Two of those six came on the road, at Rutgers and Iowa. The Huskers have moved onto a postseason bubble of their own with the NIT.

“We are not done,” Griesel said. “We want to make a run at this thing. There’s nothing better as a basketball fan, as a basketball player than playing basketball and watching basketball in March. And we want to be a part of that. We want to make a run in the Big Ten Tournament.”