Hawkeyes Fall to Illinois in Elite 8

HOUSTON, Texas – The ninth-seeded University of Iowa men’s basketball team fell to third-seeded Illinois, 71-59, on Saturday night at the Honda Center in the Elite Eight. The Hawkeyes finish the season 24-13 overall, marking the program’s first Elite Eight appearance since 1987.

Iowa opened the game on a 12-2 run, shooting 5-of-6 from the field and 2-of-3 from 3-point range. Illinois responded with a 9-0 run to cut the Hawkeye lead to 12-11 with just under 13 minutes remaining in the half. Iowa held a 22-20 advantage when the game was delayed for approximately 15 minutes due to technical difficulties with the in-arena horn with eight minutes left in the half.

Following the delay, Iowa scored the first five points and took a 32-28 lead into halftime. Illinois closed the half cold, missing eight straight field goals and shooting just 1-of-10 during the stretch. The Hawkeyes never trailed in the first half and held Illinois without a field goal for more than five minutes.

Senior Bennett Stirtz paced Iowa with 15 first-half points, shooting 6-of-9 from the field and 3-of-6 from beyond the arc. He added two rebounds and two assists. Iowa shot 12-of-21 (57.1 percent) from the field and 6-of-12 (50 percent) from 3-point range, while going 2-of-2 from the free throw line. Illinois held an 18-8 rebounding advantage in the half.

Illinois opened the second half on a 5-0 run to take its first lead of the game. The teams traded leads for the next 10 minutes, with Iowa holding a 51-50 edge at the 10-minute mark. Illinois then used an 8-0 run to build a seven-point lead with five minutes remaining, as Iowa went more than three minutes without scoring and shot 1-of-7 during that stretch.

Four straight points from freshman Tate Sage cut the deficit to four with two minutes left, but Illinois closed the game on an 8-0 run. The second half featured 13 lead changes and seven ties after Iowa led throughout the opening half. Stirtz finished with a team-high 24 points, adding three rebounds and three assists. He shot 8-of-17 from the field, 4-of-11 from 3-point range, and 4-of-4 from the free throw line. Sage recorded his second straight double-digit scoring game with 10 points, going 2-of-3 from 3-point range and grabbing three rebounds.

Iowa shot 18-of-47 (38.3 percent) from the field and 11-of-30 (36.7 percent) from 3-point range, while converting 12-of-14 (85.7 percent) from the free throw line. Illinois outrebounded the Hawkeyes, 38-21.

HEAR FROM HEAD COACH BEN MCCOLLUM
“Yeah, first off, congrats to Illinois. They played a heck of a game. I thought they did a good job getting offensive rebounds. We probably missed a few box-outs or whatnot. But they played a good game and certainly congrats to them and their season.

From our lens, this group's done a lot for the University of Iowa. It's always hard right afterwards because, as a coach, you think about what you could have done better because it's just the nature of your mind. And you're sitting there, man, I mismanaged this, I did this poorly, I didn't do this, trying to put your players in the best position to win and, you know, you don't feel like you totally did.

But came out great. But again, I think if you ask these guys, they would like a second chance at this to be able to win that game because they probably still feel like they could have. But they did set a foundation for the University of Iowa and hopefully for the future. I remember when we started the program at Northwest Missouri State and we had DeShaun Cooper, he kind of started everything.

Now, you know, Bennett, Tavion, those guys started this. It's pretty cool. I think they will look back at it in 10 years and hopefully we'll be going to Final Fours and winning championships, and they will sit there and say, Man, I did that. I think the University of Iowa and myself, and my staff is very thankful for Tavion, Bennett, and obviously consistently through the game. We just didn't do a very good job hitting and making sure we were getting the defensive rebounds and that led to them getting a bunch of O boards.”

GAME NOTES

• The Hawkeyes had their NCAA Tournament run come to an end in the Elite Eight, falling 71-59 to third-seeded Illinois on Saturday in the NCAA Tournament South Regional Championship Game at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
• Iowa finishes the season with a 24-13 record.
• The Hawkeyes’ Elite Eight appearances was the first for the program since 1987. 
• Iowa had two players land in double figures: Bennett Stirtz (24), Tate Sage (10)
• Stirtz was named to the South Region All-Region Team after recording his second straight and 20th 20-point game of the season.  He made 8-of-17 field goals and 4-of-11 shots from 3-point range en route to 24 points.  He also had three rebounds and three assists.
  • Stirtz scored 15 of Iowa’s 32 points in the first half.  
  • He played 39:32 minutes – his first game this NCAA Tournament where didn’t play all 40 minutes.
  • He finishes the season with 734 points and 163 assists.  His 734 points are the fourth-most in a single season in program history.
• After trailing by as many as 10 points in the first half, Illinois scored the first five points of the second half to take its first lead at 33-32 at the 18:36 mark.
• There were seven ties and 13 lead changes in the game.
• With Iowa leading 51-50 with 7:27 to play, the Illini used an 8-0 and 10-2 run to take a 60-52 lead with 4:06 to play.  
  • The Illini scored 21 of the final 30 points in the contest over the final 7:14.
• The Illini dominated on the glass, out-rebounding Iowa, 38-21.  Illinois turned 16 offensive rebounds into 13 second-chance points.
• Illinois had a 40-12 advantage in points in the paint.
• Iowa shot 23.1 percent (6-of-26) and 27.8 percent (5-of-18) from the field in the second half, while shooting 38.3 percent (18-of-47) for the game.
• Iowa finished with 11 3-point field goals.
• The Hawkeyes jumped out to a 9-0 lead over the first 5 ½ minutes, making four of their first five shots. The lead stretched to 12-2 on a Stirtz 3-pointer at the 15:56 mark.
  • Iowa held Illinois without a field goal until the 16:17 mark to begin the game, but the Illini used a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 12-11 with 12:41 left in the opening half.  
  • The Hawkeyes led 32-28 at the half despite being out-rebounded, 18-9, which included 10 offensive rebounds.
  • There was an 11-minute delay in the first half due to a malfunctioning scoreboard horn.  Air horns were used for the remainder of the game.