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So in the end, it’s the finish that counts.
In a contrast to the sluggish starts the Mad Ants have had in their first three games of the season, they played well enough to take a 12-point halftime lead, but it still wasn’t enough as division-leading and undefeated Iowa walked out of Memorial Coliseum with a 126-120 overtime victory Friday.
Tied at the end of regulation 111-111 and knotted at 117 with 1:36 left, Iowa got a basket from former Michigan center Courtney Sims with 1:23 left, got another easy bucket from Curtis Stinson with 45.6 remaining and finished the Ants with a free throw that made it a 122-117 game when Ants coach Jaren Jackson drew a technical foul.
“I was talkin’ to my player,” Jackson argued with the official. Thing is, he was talking to his player while standing nearly at the free-throw line.
“I got excited,” Jackson said.
But that’s what he said even after his team lost.
“You’ve got to give them credit,” he said of Iowa (4-0). “Even though we were executing on the offensive end, they were executing as well with their penetrating and driving the ball to the basket. We had a tough time dealing with them during stretches of the game, and they were chipping away and going at us with penetration.
“They were making some tough buckets. We were battling. I was excited about some of the things we did. We did not come out on the winning end, but I was very excited.”
The 4,316 fans got excited when Ants center Chris Hunter, who scored 31 points and had 13 rebounds, tied the game with a putback with 21 seconds remaining in regulation.
And when Iowa’s Cartier Martin missed a 20-footer at the buzzer after talking to his defender Coleman Collins, there was five more minutes of hope.
That hope vanished when Hunter fouled out just 35 seconds into the extra session, giving Sims, his former Michigan teammate who had 34, control of the inside.
“That was a tough spot,” Jackson said. “(Hunter) had been playing so well.”
But so had others. Walker Russell had 20 assists to go with 16 points, and Shawn Hawkins came off the bench scored 19 for the Ants.
stwarden@jg.net
