{"id":222453,"date":"2026-03-27T02:51:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T02:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/222453\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T02:51:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T02:51:07","slug":"ninth-seeded-iowa-continues-improbable-march-run-beating-nebraska-77-71-to-reach-sweet-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/222453\/","title":{"rendered":"Ninth-seeded Iowa continues improbable March run, beating Nebraska 77-71 to reach Sweet 16"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON \u2013 Alvaro Folgueiras converted a critical three-point play<\/a> when Nebraska only had four defenders on the floor, and ninth-seeded Iowa continued its unpredictable NCAA Tournament<\/a> run under first-year coach Ben McCollum, beating Nebraska 77-71 in a South Region semifinal on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Bennett Stirtz scored 20 points and Folgueiras had 16 for the Hawkeyes (24-12), who knocked off top-seeded Florida<\/a> in the second round on Folgueiras’ 3-pointer in the closing seconds.<\/p>\n

Iowa will face either Illinois or Houston on Saturday for a spot in the Final Four. McCollum, who won four Division II national titles at Northwest Missouri State, has now led Iowa to its fifth Elite Eight and first since 1987.<\/p>\n

Fourth-seeded Nebraska (28-7) took an early 10-point lead against its Big Ten rival, and Iowa tied it four times but never led until Stirtz buried a 3-pointer to make it 68-65 with 2:10 to go. Sage Tate hit another 3 to cap a 9-0 run and put Iowa ahead 71-65.<\/p>\n

The Cornhuskers got within three on a second-chance 3 by Braden Frager, but they were disorganized on the inbound play, leaving Folgueiras unguarded near the rim. He slammed it home \u2014 popping up screaming after he finished through contact as Iowa fans roared \u2014 and converted the free throw for a six-point lead.<\/p>\n

Another dunk by Folgueiras with 34 seconds left made it 76-68.<\/p>\n

Iowa transfer Pryce Sandfort made six 3s and scored 25 points for Nebraska, which won the first two March Madness games in program history to get this far. Frager added 16 points for coach Fred Hoiberg’s Cornhuskers, who delighted a traveling contingent of red-clad fans throughout their tournament run.<\/p>\n

Iowa\u2019s second-half rally was fueled by Nebraska\u2019s cold shooting: The Huskers were 9 of 32 (28.1%) in the second half, with most of those attempts coming beyond the arc, where they made just 6 of 24.<\/p>\n

The teams split their previous meetings this season, but it will be the Hawkeyes who move on and try to represent the Big Ten in the Final Four \u2014 with possibly another conference rival standing in their way.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP March Madness bracket: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ncaa-mens-bracket<\/a> and coverage: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/march-madness<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Alvaro Folgueiras converted a critical three-point play when Nebraska only had four defenders on the floor,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[86575,86574,56,58,57,154],"class_list":["post-222453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-alvaro-folgueiras","tag-ben-mccollum","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}