The clock strikes midnight
Bohannon’s last-second basket sends Iowa to Big Ten final, ends Indiana’s surprising run
INDIANAPOLIS — 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 2,000point 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 2 ½ 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, which is part of the reason Bohannon returned this season.
While they may not have advanced without Bohannon’s late-game shots, they still needed all-conference forward Keegan Murray to do some work, too. He finished with 32 points and nine rebounds and put himself in position for another board, just in case Bohannon missed.
But the final shot didn’t even go the way coach Fran McCaffery drew it up.
“He was supposed to get a shot in the corner but they jammed it up, credit to them,” McCaffery said. “But he just kept
coming. You know as long as he’s shooting, I think it’s better than anything I can draw up anyway.”
Bohannon made sure of it despite going 4 of 10 from the field and trying to rally the Hawkeyes, who trailed for all but 122 seconds until Murray’s 3 gave them a 74-73 lead with 1:56 to play.
Bohannon’s next 3, with 50.1 seconds left, made it 77-73 and appeared to seal the victory.
Instead, Xavier Johnson made two free throws and when Indiana (20-13) forced a turnover, Johnson scored on a breakaway layup to tie the score with 30.7 seconds to go. Johnson finished with 20 points and nine assists. And that’s how it stayed until Bohannon’s bank shot. Johnson’s desperation heave from 60 feet bounced high off the backboard, sealing Iowa’s victory.
“I knew he was going to launch one and it banked in, sometimes that happens,” said Trayce Jackson-Davis, who had 31 points and 10 rebounds for Indiana. “It’s March Madness. That last shot, the ball doesn’t always bounce your way and, obviously, we were about
1 second away from going into overtime.”
Purdue advances to final:
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.
A.J. Hoggard finished with 17 points and 10 assists. Gabe Brown scored 16 for the Spartans (22-12), who had a three-game winning streak snapped. Michigan State hasn’t played in the conference title game since 2019.
When the Spartans cut the deficit to 56-54 on Brown’s 3-pointer with 6:37 to play, it looked like they might end that drought.
Instead, Trevion Williams made one of two free throws, Hunter knocked down consecutive 3s, and after Williams made one of two free throws a second time, Hunter scored on a layup to give the Boilermakers a 66-56 lead with 3:31 remaining. They were Hunter’s only 3s of the game.