Iowa banks on Bohannon
Iowa guard Jordan Bohannon couldn’t recall how many times he tried a long, game-winning 3 in his backyard. Or how many times the shots went in.
No matter. Because when it came to the real thing, he made it.
With the shot clock running down in a tie game, a berth in the Big Ten Tournament championship at stake and the ball in his hands, Bohannon did what he always does — took the shot, this time from just inside the midcourt logo. And in the blink of an eye, the ball banked off the backboard and through the net with 0.8 seconds to give No. 24 Iowa an 80-77 victory over Indiana in the first of Saturday’s two semifinals.
“It’s something that can’t be put into words,” Bohannon said. “You dream about it in the backyard when you’re throwing up shots there or at the YMCA or wherever it might be. So when it went in, I just started running in circles because I didn’t really know where to go.”
Iowa fans know where the third 2,000-point scorer in school history belonged — shooting himself out of a slump.
Bohannon scored just 12 points against the surprising ninth-seeded Hoosiers. But he made three big 3s in the final 2½ minutes to give the fifth-seeded Hawkeyes (25-9) their third win in three days. One more and they’ll have their first conference tourney crown since 2006.
Purdue escapes MSU: Jaden Ivey had 22 points and nine rebounds and Eric Hunter Jr. made two back-breaking 3-pointers late in Saturday’s second Big Ten Tournament semifinal to help No. 9 Purdue beat seventh-seeded Michigan State 75-70.
The third-seeded Boilermakers (26-7) face No. 24 Iowa (25-9) on Sunday in their first title game appearance since 2018.
Houston rolls into AAC title game:
Kyler Edwards had 20 points with six 3-pointers, Josh Carlton added 16 points and 18th-ranked Houston advanced to its fourth consecutive American Athletic Conference championship game Saturday with an 86-66 win over Tulane.
The Cougars (28-5) matched their win total from last season, when they won their first AAC tournament title and then made it to the Final Four.
Texas A&M stuns Arkansas:
Surging Texas A&M isn’t leaving its NCAA Tournament hopes to chance.
With three wins in three days over favored opponents, the eighthseeded Aggies not only have landed an unlikely spot in the championship game of the SEC Tournament but almost certainly ensured their inclusion in the NCAA field of 68, too.
The Aggies can earn the SEC’s automatic berth with a win on Sunday. But even with a loss in the final, they’re likely in — only weeks after looking like they had no shot.
Vols hold off Kentucky rally:
Kennedy Chandler scored 19 points, Zakai Zeigler added 11 and No. 9 Tennessee held off fifthranked Kentucky 69-62 in the final minutes Saturday to reach the SEC Tournament final for the third time in the last five years.
The Volunteers (25-7) have won 11 of 12 and taken a huge step toward potentially securing a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.