Josh Dix Shot Lifts Hawkeyes

By John Bohnenkamp 

Chris Collins had seen this ending before.

When Iowa’s Josh Dix hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer on Tuesday night to give the Hawkeyes an 80-79 win over Northwestern, it looked an awful lot like the same shot Jordan Bohannon hit from the same spot to beat the Wildcats by the same score back in 2019.

“Deja vu,” Collins, Northwestern’s coach then and now, said.

“Same play,” Iowa forward Payton Sandfort confirmed.

Bohannon’s shot saved the Hawkeyes that night, Dix’s shot saved them on this night. Instead of staring at another early December hole in the Big Ten, Iowa (7-1) won its conference opener for the first time since the 2019-20 season.

“I mean, if that's the way it had to happen, I guess that's the way it had to happen,” Sandfort said.

The Hawkeyes avoided what would have been a disastrous collapse. They were up 17 in the first half, and then were down 74-68 with 2:15 left to play in the game.

“We stayed in fight,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said. “And I’m proud of the guys.”

Iowa got the chance to win after Ty Berry missed his second of two free throws with seven seconds left and the Hawkeyes got the rebound. After a timeout, Iowa was trying for a final shot when Sandfort noticed his brother, Pryce, was caught in a bad spot with the ball as time was running out.

“It didn’t look good what we had going,” Sandfort said.

“I was going to let Pryce shoot it,” McCaffery said. “That was Payton. Payton called that.”

Eight-tenths of a second were put back on the clock after a replay review, and McCaffery drew up the play that had worked with Bohannon.

“Any time you run a play, there's multiple options,” McCaffery said. “And they took away two or three of them — they locked up and they chased Payton, and they were mugging Owen on on the back pick. So your last option is Josh.”

He was the best option. He caught Brock Harding’s inbounds pass and put up a 35-foot fall-away 3-pointer.

“We ran kind of like a tip play for Owen, but I told Brock, if it's not open, I'll try and get open at the top to get a shot off,” Dix said. “And he hit me, so I just tried to make it.”

“From where I stood, it looked good as soon as it left his hand,” McCaffery said.

“Welcome to Big Ten basketball, 2024,” Collins said.

The early December conference games have never been good for the Hawkeyes. They came into this game 2-10 in the month since the Big Ten went to 20 games in the 2018-19 season.

They almost dug themselves another hole with this game.

Iowa sped past the Wildcats in the first half, shooting 65.4% to lead 45-34 at halftime. But the Hawkeyes became passive in the second half, shooting 44.9% while committing six turnovers. They were 3 of 12 in 3-pointers, and a nearly catastrophic 6 of 13 in free throws, including 1 of 5 in the final three minutes.

“We got tentative,” McCaffery said. “We turn the ball over in transition. We don't turn the ball over in transition, and they're leading the run-out — they're live-ball turnovers, and they're scoring on live-ball turnovers. So the lead evaporates pretty quickly.”

But there were little plays — Harding forcing a jump ball with under a minute to play with the possession arrow favoring the Hawkeyes, a layup by Harding a few seconds later, and then another layup with 14 seconds left to cut the lead to 78-77.

Dix led the Hawkeyes with 22 points. Sandfort had 20, Owen Freeman had 16, and Harding finished with 12.

“It's a lot easier to learn from a win, so we're happy, and we'll just keep getting better,” Sandfort said.