BY PAUL GOTHAM
BROOKLYN — Adam Woodbury corralled an air ball and scored at the buzzer as the No. 7-seed Iowa Hawkeyes outlasted No. 11-seed Temple Owls, 72-70 in first round action of the NCAA Tournament South Region.
Woodbury finished with 10 points and five rebounds. None more important than his shot at the buzzer as Iowa survived a near collapse at the end of the regulation.
“Coach always tells me get on the glass every possession,” Woodbury said. “I was fortunate enough to put it in, and just one of those right place, right time kind of deals, and happy we got it in.”
Leading by eight, Iowa did not hit a field goal in the final five minutes of regulation and were outscored 10-2 by Temple.
“We executed down the stretch as well as we have at any point in time in the last three years,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said. “We couldn’t get a shot to go down. So if we’re not coming apart at either end — and what I’m seeing is a group that’s fighting, that understands what we’re trying to do, then I’m fine. I don’t jump to any conclusions or worry because, if I’m worrying, then they’re going to worry, and I don’t want them to worry, and I thought they just kept battling. I was really proud of them.”
Senior Quenton Decosey scored nine of Temple’s final 12 points. The 6-5 guard was fouled on a fall away three-point attempt with 2.1 seconds and calmly sank all three attempts to send the game in extra time.
“The only thing I was thinking was just let me take my time, make the first one, then make the second one, then make the last one,” Decosey said. “Just hold my follow through.”
Jarrod Uthoff led Iowa with 23 points. His 3-pointer gave the Hawkeyes their largest lead at the 11:01 of the first half at 28-18.
Iowa still had the 10-point advantage at 51-41 before Temple started to chip away.
Decosey picked up his third foul less than two minutes into the second half and came out of the game with Temple trailing by three. When the Owls leading scorer came back in the game, Iowa led by double-digits.
“When I got back in, I just wanted to do whatever I could to help my team get back in the game and give us the best chance at winning the game,” Temple’s leading scorer said.
Iowa scored the first three points of overtime, but a Josh Brown jumper and three-point play from Decosey gave Temple the lead at 68-66 with 2:40 remaining in overtime.
“If you think about it,” McCaffery said. “Okay, we jumped them in overtime. Well, they came back again, and they took the lead again. I think that’s really hard. And that’s why I have so much respect for how we kept fighting because we didn’t shoot it well in overtime. But we did enough to win the game.
“It never felt like we were out of it. Never stopped battling defensively. Never stopped attacking the glass. Obviously, we tipped one in at the buzzer. It’s a great feeling as a coach to see your team be that resilient.”
Temple outrebounded Iowa 49-38, but Iowa converted 12 Temple turnovers into a 11-3 advantage in points off those mishandles.
“Tremendous opportunity for us to be in a game like that,” Temple head coach Fran Dunphy said. “I was proud of our guys for the non-quit factor in us. Obviously, I’m disappointed we’re not going to have a chance to play on Sunday, but, again, very proud of our guys. Give credit to Iowa. For what they did.”
Decosey led all scorers with 26.
Jaylen Bond finished with 14 points and 15 rebounds for Temple.
Iowa moves on to play No. 2-seed Villanova, Sunday.
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