Nebraska goes cold late, falls to Iowa in Sweet 16

Nebraska's dream season came to an end at the hands of a familiar foe Thursday night.

Iowa didn't have a lead until just over two minutes remained in the game, but once they took it, they didn't relinquish it on the way to a 77-71 win in a regional semifinal game.

"It stings," head coach Fred Hoiberg said as he addressed reporters after the game. "This one hurts about as bad as any I've been a part of, just because of what this group is all about. And we don't get to lace them up anymore together as a group."

Nebraska jumped out to a 12-2 lead, but Iowa battled back to only trail by three, 46-43 at halftime.

The second half was a back-and-forth affair, before Iowa took a 68-65 lead on a Bennett Stirtz three-pointer with 2:10 remaining in the game.

From there, it was pretty much all Iowa. The Hawkeyes outscored Nebraska 9-6 the rest of the way to seal the win. Stirtz led the Hawkeyes with 20 points. Pryce Sandfort paced Nebraska with 25 points, making six of 10 three-pointers. Braden Frager scored 16 points.

"Hats off to Iowa. They played great, especially down the stretch, and they deserved to win," Hoiberg said.

Hoiberg fielded several questions about the team's failure to have five players on the court on a final play that left Iowa players uncovered and open to score. Hoiberg said that was miscommunication on his part, not his players.

"I've never been in a situation like that," Hoiberg said. "I know they always count to make sure there's not six [players]. I don't know the rule on that with four, but again, it was a miscommunication. Unfortunately, it happened."

This was the third meetup for Nebraska and Iowa. The Hawkeyes dealt the Huskers a close loss in February, but Nebraska made up for it in March, handily beating Iowa at Pinnacle Bank Arena. The Thursday night loss in the NCAA tournament left this season's rivalry record at 2-1, Iowa. Nebraska's all-time record with Iowa stands at 16-29.

Iowa, a No. 9 seed, improved to 24-12 and moves on to the Elite Eight to play the winner of Houston-Illinois. The Huskers will head back to Lincoln to say goodbye to this basketball season.

Thursday night, the head coach got emotional describing the season he's had with his players, including his son, point guard Sam Hoiberg.

"These guys will be a part of history of Nebraska basketball forever for winning the first NCAA Tournament game, getting to the Sweet 16, most wins in the history of the program, highest ranking... They just did so many things to elevate our program, and I'm really proud of them. You know, when the sting does wear off, which it will at some point, but these guys deserve a lot of credit for what they've done for Nebraska basketball."

The Huskers finished their best season ever at 28-7. Other than breaking the aforementioned records, the Huskers also finished the season with other school records like most recorded 3-pointers in a season at 373 and the lowest average of turnovers at 9.71. Hoiberg said this season

"We'll get to hang a banner next year – a banner that's never been hung in PBA – and we'll get invited back someday. Hopefully, I'm still around, but these guys, with their kids, will be able to come back and talk about this season."

Jackie Ourada contributed to this story.