TAMPA, Fla. — No matter the sport, you have a great chance to win when you play stout defense.
The Iowa Hawkeyes proved that with a 67-61 win over the Clemson Tigers in the first round of the men's NCAA Tournament on Friday evening at Benchmark International Arena. The No. 9 seed Hawkeyes banged and bruised their way past the eighth-seeded Tigers, earning a second-round date on Sunday afternoon with the No. 1 seed Florida Gators.
Iowa (22-12) led by as many as 14 in the second half and withstood a pair of furious second-half runs by Clemson (24-11). Bennett Stirtz tallied a game-high 16 points for the Hawkeyes, and Kael Combs added 15 points. RJ Godfrey led the Tigers with 15 points.
Importantly, Iowa outrebounded Clemson, 40-27, including 15 offensive boards. Clemson played without center Carter Welling, the Tigers' second-leading scorer and top rebounder, who tore the ACL in his right knee in the ACC tournament.
"Sometimes it's not always pretty," Iowa coach Ben McCollum said. "Sometimes we don't always work with a high level of intelligence. But no one will question our fight. That's what we recruited. And I don't mean they're dumb players. They're not dumb players; they're smart players. But sometimes we do things that are just, like, out of this world. What we never forget to do is fight, though."
Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
As expected, it was a physical battle between two defensive-minded teams. Iowa entered the game ranked No. 18 in the nation (out of 365 teams) in scoring defense, allowing just 66.0 points per game. Clemson wasn't far behind at No. 28 and 66.7 points allowed per game.
Clemson narrowed an early 12-point Hawkeyes lead to two on Godfrey's layup with 14:09 left in the game, only to watch Iowa go on another run and open a 14-point lead with 8:39 remaining. The Tigers didn't pack it in, though, and they chipped the lead down to five on Jestin Porter's stepback 3-pointer with five minutes left. It became a four-point game with 1:28 left after Clemson's Ace Buckner slashed to the basket for a layup.
But Iowa wouldn't buckle. Combs put the Hawkeyes back up by six with a layup of his own with just under a minute left, and Iowa would hang on for the win.
"We know we're not the most athletic team or talented team out there," Stirtz said. but I think we're the most together team and we love hanging out with each other."
Each team only made 10 field goals in the first half, but the Hawkeyes took a seven-point lead into intermission. Combs was the only double-figure scorer in the first half, registering 11 points.
"I thought our kids just early in the game, I don't know, for whatever reason, we just didn't seem really comfortable," Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. "I thought we missed some shots around the rim that we probably normally make. Give their kids credit, they made some threes early, which gave them a bunch of juice."
