McCausland Helps Iowa Shoot Into the Sweet 16

DENVER —  Iowa’s Kent McCausland is known to practice his outside shot until his fingers bleed. On Saturday, McCausland wore out Arkansas with his deft shooting touch, and in doing so, reduced his coach to joyous tears.

McCausland made five second-half three-point baskets and Iowa adapted its half-court game to match fast-paced Arkansas in an 82-72 in the second round of the West Regional.

“I think everybody was looking for him,” Iowa’s Jess Settles said of McCausland. “It seemed like he hit three or four in a row, and it gave us new life because we were on the brink.”

McCausland and Dean Oliver each had 17 points as the No. 5-seeded Hawkeyes (20-9) overcame a 13-point second-half deficit to advance to the round of 16 for the third time under departing coach Tom Davis, whose contract will not be renewed even though he is 269-139 in 13 seasons at Iowa.

After the final buzzer, a misty-eyed Davis stood at midcourt with the game ball as hundreds of jubilant Hawkeyes fans chanted his name.

“It’s so deep, I don’t know if I can do it justice,” Davis said when asked to describe his feelings. “The bigger questions I’ll try to answer when this is over, and it can be over at any moment. It was almost over today.”

Chris Walker scored a career-high 22 points and Kareem Reid had 18 points and 11 assists for No. 4-seed Arkansas, which blew leads of 47-34 and 66-59. The Razorbacks (23-11) were outscored 23-6 over the final 7:20 as Iowa turned the tables with a surprisingly effective full-court press.

“We got our [13-2] run and then we lost everything,” Reid said. “We lost our aggressiveness and they took the ball from us three straight times. Their press really bothered us.”

A three-point basket by Reid put Arkansas ahead by seven before McCausland made back-to-back shots from behind the arc to trigger a 12-0 run that gave Iowa a 71-66 lead with 4:35 remaining.

“I said to myself, ‘I am not going to go out my senior year and not throw up some shots to at least get us back in the game,”’ said McCausland, who led the nation in three-point shooting percentage (52%) in 1996-97. “I knocked down one and felt like I could make the rest.”

Oliver, constantly harassed by Arkansas’ pressure defense, capped the decisive run with a length-of-the-court behind-the-back pass that led to a dunk by Settles. Oliver had four assists and only two turnovers.

“You have to attack, but you have to attack under control,” Oliver said. “That is what we tried to do, and we did it better in the second half.”

Arkansas pulled to 73-72 on Reid’s three-point basket with 2:26 left, but J.R. Koch tipped in a missed shot for Iowa, and the Razorbacks couldn’t score in their final three possessions, setting off an emotional celebration for Davis and the Hawkeyes.

Arkansas was denied its seventh trip to the round of 16 this decade, committing 23 turnovers and making only 12 of 37 three-point shots.

Iowa, which plays top-seeded Connecticut (30-2) on Thursday in Phoenix, had a 47-32 rebounding advantage to offset 24 turnovers.