Cold shooting down stretch, overturned goaltending call doom Iowa in loss at Illinois

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — In a grudge-match sense, this one was quiet. But on the court, this matchup of high-powered offenses lived up to the massive pregame hype.

And when No. 7 Iowa and No. 22 Illinois had finished battling for 40 entertaining minutes at the State Farm Center, it was the Fighting Illini who emerged with an 80-75 win.

The Hawkeyes had their chances to grab a crucial road victory in a heated Big Ten Conference race, but they went cold after Luka Garza's dunk tied the score at 69-all with 5:24 to go. They missed eight of their final 10 shots and failed to score on nine of their final 11 possessions.

“We’re two great teams. They’re a really, really good team," Garza said. "They were better tonight. There were stretches we could’ve won this game.

"It just hurts when you have an effort like that and can't come up with the win."

The game was not without controversy.

A goaltending call against Illinois' Kofi Cockburn that was overturned by officials with 1:06 to go changed the complexion of what would become a tense final 66 seconds. On the play, Iowa's Joe Wieskamp had his shot rejected near the hoop. He collected the rebound immediately off the block and laid the ball in. But officials had blown the play dead, having called goaltending .. until it wasn't.

Had the original call stood, Iowa would've been down 76-74. Instead, it was 76-72 and the Hawkeyes got the ball via the possession arrow. Iowa turned the ball over on the ensuing possession, and soon, it was time to catch up by fouling instead of playing defense.

“If anything, it’s unfortunate. We thought we got the two. And either way we would’ve had the two," Garza said. "But that’s just how it works sometimes.”

After two Trent Frazier free throws, the Hawkeyes (12-4 overall, 6-3 Big Ten) did slice the deficit to 78-75 on Jordan Bohannon's 3-pointer with 11.6 seconds left. Then the Hawkeyes got the stop they needed; forcing a five-second call on Illinois' inbounds pass. That allowed Fran McCaffery time to draw up a play for Bohannon, but his right-wing 3 misfired with five seconds to play.

Cockburn was fouled. He missed the one-and-one free throw, but scrambled to get the offensive rebound after the ball glanced off Jack Nunge's fingertips. Cockburn then converted two free throws with 2.7 seconds left to secure the win for Illinois (11-5, 7-3).

Hawkeyes columnist Chad Leistikow has covered sports for 26 years with The Des Moines Register, USA TODAY and Iowa City Press-Citizen. Follow @ChadLeistikow on Twitter.