KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Greg Brunner had 17 points and 12 rebounds, and No. 18 Iowa made a flurry of clutch defensive plays and free throws to beat No. 7 Kentucky 67-63 Monday night in the semifinals of the Guardians Classic.
Mike Henderson went 7-for-9 from the line and added 15 points for the Hawkeyes (3-0), who will meet No. 2 Texas – a 76-75 victory over No. 13 West Virginia in the early semifinal – in Tuesday night’s championship game. The Wildcats (2-1) will play the Mountaineers for third place.
Wildcats point guard Rajon Rondo had a career-high 19 rebounds, a Guardians Classic record, but was held to five points – 13 below his season average.
A wild final 72 seconds capped a back-and-forth battle in which neither team ever went up by more than seven points – and both shot horribly from the floor.
Iowa shot 38 percent (23-for-60), while the Wildcats were a woeful 20-for-61, 33 percent.
Kentucky’s Bobby Perry, who finished with 12 points, hit a 3-pointer with 1:12 remaining to force a 61-all tie. Rekalin Sims rebounded Henderson’s miss at the other end, but his pass to Rondo was off-target and Rondo fell out of bounds before he could call timeout.
Sims, who led Kentucky with a career-high 22 points, fouled out on Iowa’s ensuing possession, and Adam Haluska hit the first of two free throws to put the Hawkeyes up 62-61.
Perry missed at the other end, and Henderson rebounded and was fouled. That still did not put Iowa into the bonus, so the Wildcats were forced to foul again on the inbounds play and Jeff Horner hit two more free throws with 25.2 seconds left to make it 64-61.
Henderson then stripped the ball from Ramel Bradley, was fouled, and hit one free throw for a 65-61 lead. Ravi Moss scored for Kentucky with 1.4 seconds left, but Haluska’s two foul shots with 0.9 left sealed the win for the Hawkeyes.
Sims hit two 3-pointers and scored seven points in an early 10-0 run that put Kentucky up 12-5, but Iowa responded with a 10-3 run to tie it at 15. After that, the margin never went past five points.
The Hawkeyes led 34-31 at the break, holding Kentucky to 32 percent shooting (10-for-31) and forcing 10 turnovers in the first half. The Wildcats didn’t lead in the second half until Bradley hit a 3-pointer with just under 11 minutes left to put them up 46-44.
