CSNPhilly.com's printable bracket.
Brackets: East | Midwest | South | West
NEW YORK — It was another one of those unforgettable NCAA Tournament moments, and this time Temple was on the wrong end of all the drama.
Temple rallied ferociously from 10 points back in the middle of the second half to send its NCAA South Regional first-round game against Iowa into overtime before losing in heartbreaking fashion — on a put-back at the buzzer.
Temple, the No. 10 seed, led by two with the ball with less than two minutes left in overtime but couldn’t finish off the No. 7 seed Hawkeyes.
With the score tied at 70 and 22 seconds left in OT, Temple’s Daniel Dingle missed the front end of a 1-and-1.
Iowa then worked the ball until Mike Gesell took a short jumper from right of the lane with two seconds left.
He missed, but 7-foot-1 Adam Woodbury rebounded and went up strong with the game-winner.
“I’m like, ‘Whoa, it’s over,’” Temple senior Jaylen Bond said. “As soon as I saw he had possession of it and tip it in, ‘Man, our season’s over.’
“But I can’t hold my head. I’m proud of my teammates and proud of how they fought.”
That was the mantra for Temple after the game.
Not how they lost but how they battled.
“Real proud of my teammates,” Bond said. “We stuck together and played hard the whole game.
“I thought we gave it our best effort. Everybody fought hard, and that’s all I can ask for from my team.”
Even though it appeared Woodbury may have shoved Temple’s Obi Enechionyia out of the way to secure the rebound to set up his game-winning shot, nobody in Temple’s locker room blamed the refs.
“You know, they just beat us to the ball,” Bond said. “They were able to get an offensive rebound and the tip in won the game.”
Temple has had its share of NCAA tourney heartbreak lately.
There was a double-overtime loss to San Diego State in 2011. Losses as a 5 seed to 12 seeds Cornell and South Florida in 2010 and 2012. A six-point loss to No. 1 seed Indiana as a 9 seed in 2013.
This might have been the worst yet because it came on such a flukey play.
“I thought Josh Brown did a great job on Gesell and made him shoot a really difficult shot,” Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. “And then, obviously, it's a free-for-all at that point, hoping you're getting it and their guys aren't.
“Woodbury got it and stuck it back in, but I thought our defense was really good that last possession.”
Temple battled back all afternoon.
Iowa made five of its first eight threes and ran out to a 30-18 lead just 10 minutes into the game, but a 15-2 run gave Temple a 33-32 lead just before halftime.
Iowa had the lead back up to 10 at 51-41 seven minutes into the second half, but Quenton DeCosey capped another comeback and forced overtime with three foul shots with two seconds left in regulation.
It looked like the Owls and Hawkeyes were headed to a second overtime until Woodbury’s put-back at the buzzer.
“It’s a tough pill to digest,” said DeCosey, who battled second-half foul trouble in his final game in a Temple uniform.
“It hasn’t really hit me yet that this is my last game and other seniors’ last game. It’ll probably hit me when I get back to Philly.
“Tough one."
Bond had 15 points and 14 rebounds for Temple and DeCosey 26 points and eight rebounds.
“It’s tough," Bond said. "It didn’t hit me yet … but once we get back home and start thinking about it, it’ll be hard to deal with.”
Iowa, 22-10, advanced to a Round of 32 game Sunday at the Barclays Center against Villanova, which beat UNC Asheville earlier Friday. Temple finished 21-12.
The Hawkeyes moved on despite making just two of their final 20 three-pointers and shooting just 35 percent from the field in the game, including 11 for 37 (30 percent) after halftime.
For Iowa, Jarrod Uthoff shot just 7 for 21 for 23 points, and Peter Jok shot 5 for 15 for 16 points.
Woodbury had four offensive rebounds to go with 10 points.
“Coach (Fran McCaffrey) always tells me get on the glass every possession,” Woodbury said. “So I knew that, if if Mike got a good look at it and it was a little long, I'd be able to get the offensive rebound.
“I was fortunate enough to put it in. Just one of those right-place, right-time kind of deals.”
The loss was the 16th in 19 NCAA Tournament games for Dunphy, including his years at Penn.
Temple is 2-8 in its last 10 NCAA Tournament games and hasn’t beaten a team seeded higher than No. 8 since 2001.
DeCosey finished his four-year Temple career with 1,513 points and 519 rebounds. Bond had 587 points and 326 rebounds in two years on North Broad.
“I feel great about them,” Dunphy said. “I love these guys. The seniors are gone. You won't see much of them after this. They'll work at it, some of them trying to be professional basketball players. Some of them will be professional in some other way.
“So it hurts, to be honest with you. That's the part of the problem of this situation. It's now the abruptness of the ending is frightening, to be honest with you.”
Brown was the only player on either team to shoot better than 50 percent from three. He was 7 for 11 from the field, 2 for 3 from three, and finished with 16 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
Temple outrebounded Iowa by 11 (49-38). Iowa committed just three turnovers, none in the game’s first 36½ minutes.
“We tried hard all year,” Bond said. “We gave it our all every time we were out on the court. We stayed together. We played for each other.
“We’re a hard-nosed team. We’re never going to quit. We’re going to play hard for 40 minutes. Our whole season we battled. Won a lot of close games. That defined how we wanted to be. Just a team that never gave up and always fought.”