HOUSTON — Iowa led by three with just under a minute remaining on the clock when Kael Combs launched an in-bounds pass three-fourths of the way down the court to a wide-open Alvaro Foglueiras.
The Malaga, Spain native flushed home a dunk, drew a foul and converted on the free throw to give the Hawkeyes a commanding six-point lead late in Thursday’s 77-71 win over Nebraska.
The dunk ignited the Iowa faithful in Houston and silenced the large Nebraska contingent in attendance — the writing was on the wall.
For a play in such a critical, late-game situation, how did Folgueiras get so wide open? The Huskers only had four players on the court.
Folgueiras noticed Iowa’s numbers advantage and crept down the court just far enough away from any defender to make the game-winning play.
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“I’m from the South of Spain,” Folgueiras said. “I’m from a small neighbor called El Palo. We are known by being a little more life smart than some other places. I just noticed that they were all trying to figure out who they were guarding and there were just four players on the court. I made eye-contact with Kael. The ref gave the ball after 2-3 seconds of me jumping saying, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go. And, we had enough time to get the fastbreak with just four players.”
According to freshman guard Tate Sage, Folgueiras was not the one who was originally supposed to get the in-bounds pass out of the timeout.
“We were going to throw it to Bennett (Stirtz), but then we looked down and Alvaro had nobody on him,” Sage said. “So, we’re like Kael, throw it, and it end up getting the bucket.”
The play took star guard Bennett Stirtz and head coach Ben McCollum by surprise.
“I was pretty shocked to see Alvaro wide open,” Stirtz said. “I didn’t even know they had four players on until we were in the locker room. Kael threw a great pass. We were able to move on the baseline so that helped out a lot and Al had a nice dunk.”
“I didn’t even realize,” McCollum said. “I was like, I don’t know why he’s not being guarded. I didn’t know. Then, he dunked it. I’m like, the heck just happened? Then, my assistant said they only had four on the court.”
Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg took the blame for the miscue which ultimately put the game out of reach and prevented the Huskers from advancing to the first Elite 8 in program history.
“Put that one on me,” Hoiberg said. “It was a miscommunication and I’m the head coach. Put that one on me.”
Up Next: No. 9 seed Iowa (24-12, 10-10 Big Ten) faces No. 3 seed Illinois (27-8, 15-5 Big Ten) on Saturday at 5:09 p.m. with broadcast coverage provided by TBS and TruTV. The Hawkeye Radio Network will also provide coverage of the game.
Ethan Petrik is a University of Iowa beat writer for the Lee Enterprises network. Follow him on X or send him an email at ethan.petrik@wcfcourier.com.
