Iowa State beats North Carolina with dramatic finish
McDermott’s career ends in loss to Baylor
On Sunday, long
SAN ANTONIO before Iowa State tipped off against North Carolina, injured Cyclones forward Georges Niang summoned his teammates to his room for a meeting and to deliver a message.
“This season is a long way from being over,” Niang said he told teammates.
Third-seeded Iowa State didn’t listen to those who said the Cyclones had little chance against sixth-seeded North Carolina without Niang, an invaluable forward who broke his foot in Friday’s victory against North Carolina Central.
Undermanned and undersized, the Cyclones overcame a threepoint deficit with 56 seconds to play to outlast North Carolina 8583 in Sunday’s third-round NCAA tournament game at the AT&T Center. Iowa State (28-7) advanced to play seventh-seeded Connecticut in the East Region semifinals Friday at Madison Square Garden in New York.
With the score tied in the final 10 seconds, Iowa State had the ball in the hands of the right man: 24-year-old DeAndre Kane, a physical guard who has authored a story of redemption after being dismissed from Marshall last summer.
There was no way Kane was giving up the ball. He was going to drive to the basket, as he had done all game. When asked what play was called, teammate Dustin Hogue said, “Give the ball to DeAndre and everybody get out of the way.”
Kane attacked and lofted a shot high over one defender and another one who was approaching. The ball bounced off the backboard and through the net with 1.8 seconds to play.
North Carolina raced the ball toward halfcourt — the clock appeared to start late — and tried to get a timeout before the horn sounded. Coach Roy Williams bowed his head, as if he knew the game — and the Tar Heels’ impressive turnaround season — had ended. After a lengthy review by officials, the game was declared over.
Kane, who finished with 24 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, was nothing short of superb.
“DeAndre is the best guard in America,” Iowa State assistant Cornell Mann told USA TODAY Sports.
Aside from Kane, Niang was the player Iowa State could least afford to lose.
And coach Fred Hoiberg, probably as skilled at exploiting mismatches as any coach in the nation, knew he had his work cut out for him Sunday.
“I was really nervous going into this one,” Hoiberg said. “You have to have a collective effort, and guys definitely stepped up to fill that void.”
In Sunday’s other game, the entire Baylor team stepped up to stop national player of the year candidate Doug McDermott of Creighton.
McDermott, a senior, has been an irrepressible offensive force, and holding him to under 30 points can be considered a success. But the sixth-seeded Bears have something few teams possess. They possess an abundance of length and athleticism to use as ingredients in a disruptive zone defense.
That zone defense made McDermott’s final college game a nightmare. He scored three firsthalf points and 15 overall en route to an 85-55 third-round loss.
Baylor (26-11) advanced to play second-seeded Wisconsin on Thursday in the West Region semifinals in Anaheim, Calif.
This will be the third Sweet 16 appearance for coach Scott Drew, who has engineered perhaps the greatest rebuilding job in the history of college basketball at Baylor.