Iowa overcomes 13-point deficit in final 1:34, improbably beats Michigan State in OT

Iowa pulled off an unbelievable comeback on Saturday vs. Michigan State.

Coming off back-to-back ugly road losses, things were looking bleak once again for Iowa. The Hawkeyes trailed MSU 91-78 with just 1:34 left in regulation.

At that point, Iowa had no choice other than to start jacking up threes. For a team that was a combined 6-of-52 from long distance in its previous two games, that did not seem like it would be a recipe for a comeback.

This time, though, shots were falling at an incredible rate. The Hawkeyes made six of their final nine 3-point attempts in the final 90 seconds of regulation in order to miraculously force overtime even as Michigan State made most of its free throws.

With the home crowd going nuts, Iowa outscored MSU 11-5 in overtime to emerge with an improbable 112-106 victory.

It was a wild turn of events.

MSU had a 10-point lead with 48 seconds to play but just could not get a stop on defense.

Iowa’s Connor McCaffery hit a triple at the 39-second mark to make MSU’s lead 96-89. And after forcing a turnover, Kris Murray followed up with a three of his own at the 30-second mark to cut MSU’s lead to 96-92.

Following a pair of free throws from MSU’s A.J. Hoggard, Patrick McCaffery drilled one from the top of the arc to make it 98-95 with 20 seconds left. Iowa was still fouling and Hoggard sunk two more to make it 100-95.

On the ensuing possession, Connor McCaffery hit another to cut MSU’s lead to 100-98 with 10 seconds to go. MSU subsequently got the ball to Hoggard again. This time, however, he split the free throws.

MSU’s lead was 101-98 and the ball was back in Iowa’s hands. That set the stage for Payton Sandfort to send the game to overtime.

It looked like Michigan State was trying to foul to put Iowa on the line and avoid another 3-pointer. Instead, the Spartans messed up a switch on defense, allowing Connor McCaffery to get the ball to Sandfort via a dribble handoff.

Sandfort, of course, drilled it.

From there, Iowa completely controlled the extra session and were able to emerge victorious.

Michigan State reached as high as 99.8% on ESPN’s win probability metric in the final minute, but Iowa was able to pull off a comeback for the ages.

Murray led the way for Iowa, posting 26 points and eight rebounds. He was one of five Iowa players in double figures. Tony Perkins had 24 points, including two clutch putbacks in overtime. Sandfort had 22 off the bench, including 6-of-10 from downtown.

With the win, Iowa snapped that two-game losing streak and improved to 18-11 overall and 10-8 in Big Ten play. MSU dropped to 17-11 (9-8 Big Ten).