Michigan basketball falls at Iowa in overtime thriller

Michigan basketball fell to 9-7 (3-2 B1G) on the year with an overtime loss at Iowa on Thursday night in Iowa City. The evening was headlined by a blistering effort from freshman wing Jett Howard, who scored a career-high 34 points. However, it was a missed opportunity to grab a winnable road game for the 2nd game in a row.

Howard’s tied his career high with 21 points in the first half, but it was a true team effort in the 2nd chapter. Junior center Hunter Dickinson had 12 points and 13 rebounds.

Desptie that, the Wolverines choked away a 4-point lead with 30 seconds to go and were completely outmatched in overtime, dropping another potential resume game.

Here is the full recap from the outing in Iowa City.

First half

Michigan’s offense – more accurately, the Jett Howard offense – was cooking to start the game. The freshman wing scored the first 11 points of the game for the Wolverines, who led 11-7 at the under-16 media timeout (15:44). Eventually, Howard’s teammates would start joining him in the scoring with Dickinson hitting a pair of baskets, the second of which helped U-M take a lead back at 15-14 at the 13:24 mark. A Kris Murray jumper for Iowa gave it the lead right back at 16-15 before a 3-pointer from Howard and Dug McDaniel fast-break layup gave the Wolverines a 20-16 advantage with 12:20 left in the half.

Layups from Payton Sandford and Murray helped Iowa tie the game at 20-all with 11:12 to go. U-M answered with another 5-0 run thanks to a jumper from sophomore forward Will Tschetter and another 3-pointer from Howard, taking the lead back at 25-20 (10:32 to go). Graduate wing Joey Baker gave Michigan its largest lead of the half at 28-22 at the 9:11 mark. Iowa would keep clawing back and tied the game at 30-30 on a 3-pointer from Murray at with 7:40 remaining. Michigan would stretch its lead to 5 points again at 37-32 on a 3-pointer from Dickinson playing in a two-big lineup with freshman Tarris Reed.

Iowa would take a 40-39 lead with 2:37 to go on a Connor McCaffery triple, but Michigan scored the final 4 points of the half on baskets from sophomore guard Kobe Bufkin and Howard, going to the locker room up 43-40 in Iowa City. Howard’s 21-point half tied his career-high for points scored in a college basketball game.

Second half

The Wolverines kept up their torrid pace offensively to start half number two in Iowa City, kicking things off with a 3 from Bufkin to go up 46-40. McDaniel hit on a jumper to put the Wolverines up 48-41 that was answered by an Iowa 3-pointer. Junior Terrance Williams answered right back with a 3-pointer of his own, putting Michigan up 51-44 and forcing an Iowa timeout at the 17:43 mark.

Michigan led 52-46 with 16:50 to go before a 7-0 run from Iowa helped the Hawkeyes take a 53-52 lead with 14:44 remaining. Howard answered with another 3-pointer to put Michigan back up 55-53 before a Murray layup tied the game against at 55-all at 13:46 to go. What followed was a 10-0 run from the Wolverines, the first 7 points of which were scored by Howard. Tschetter followed it up with a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 65-55 with 10:56 remaining.

Iowa answered with a 7-0 run to pull the score to 65-62 in favor of U-M with 9:27 left before a 4-0 run from Michigan had them leading 69-62 at the under-8 media timeout. Iowa went on another 5-0 run to narrow U-M’s lead to 69-67 before a 3-pointer from McDaniel halted momentum again. Michigan led 72-67 after his bucket from long range.

Iowa fired back with a quick 3-0 spurt, but McDaniel hit again from long range to put Michigan up 75-70 at the final media timeout. A tip-in from Dickinson extended U-M’s lead to 77-70 before a layup from Iowa put it back at a 5-point deficit. Michigan would lead 77-72 with 1:12 remaining. Sandfort got hot for the Hawkeyes late with a pair of 3-pointers, the 2nd of which was an and-1 situation. The game was tied 79-79 with 20 seconds to go and would end that way, sending the game to overtime.

Overtime

Iowa scored the first 8 points of the overtime period, holding an 87-79 lead with 2:32 to go in the game. Michigan was able to muster a basket from Terrance Williams II with 1:39 to go to trim the deficit to 6, but a trio of free throws from Filip Rebraca with 49 seconds left sealed U-M’s fate. Michigan got 3 free throws from Howard, but Iowa matched and walked out with a 93-84 overtime win.

Michigan is next in action at home on Sunday afternoon against the Northwestern Wildcats, a 12 p.m. ET tip on Big Ten Network.

Michigan at Iowa box score, final statistics