Iowa's Pierre Pierce, left, passed the ball over Louisville's Otis George before falling out of bounds in the second half.
Iowa upsets
12th-ranked Louisville
A second-half surge lifts the
Hawkeyes over the Cardinals
LAHAINA, Maui » Iowa stayed close in the first half against Louisville yesterday in the opening round of the Maui Invitational. The Hawkeyes dominated the next 20 minutes.
Jeff Horner scored 11 points in a 4 1/2-minute span of the second half, part of a 9-minute stretch when Iowa held No. 12 Louisville without a field goal, and the Hawkeyes went on to a 76-71 victory.
"I thought in the second half we performed extremely well," Iowa coach Steve Alford said. "I thought our defense went to another level and we executed offensively."
That happened after a challenge from the coach to his players.
"At halftime I told them we were down four points to a team that shot 61 percent. I told them they weren't going to shoot 61 percent again so we had to step up, concentrate and play defense," Alford said. "I really challenged Jeff, Adam (Haluska) and Pierre (Pierce). I wouldn't trade those three guys for anybody and I thought in the first half they weren't themselves. They did what we knew they would, they responded to the challenge."
Now Iowa (2-0) will play No. 15 Texas in the semifinals today. The Longhorns (2-0) beat Chaminade 84-62 yesterday.
Juan Palacios scored inside with 11:39 to play to give Louisville (1-1) a 48-42 lead. That was the Cardinals' last field goal for nine minutes as Iowa went up 67-56. Louisville missed 10 shots in that span and managed just eight points, all on free throws.
Texas guard Sydmill Harris , left, was fouled by Chaminade's Chris Powell during the second half yesterday.
Meanwhile, Horner, who finished with 18 points and six assists, went on his own scoring binge. The 6-foot-3 junior hit a 3-pointer with 11:18 left and added two more in his 11-point run. Both of those gave Iowa the lead, the second for good at 55-52 with 7:39 to play.
"We knew we needed something and as one of our leaders I felt I had to step up," Horner said. "Once I hit those shots I could feel everybody step up, especially on defense."
The Hawkeyes got the lead up to 11 points before Larry O'Bannon finally hit a shot for Louisville, a jumper that made it 67-58 with 2:39 to play.
Louisville led 37-33 at halftime and neither team was up by more than six points until Iowa's defense forced Louisville's drought. The Hawkeyes did a good job on the perimeter and inside. By denying baskets, they never allowed Louisville to set up its press.
"If you don't rotate early enough on Horner he'll kill you and we could not defend their dribble penetration," Pitino said. "He killed us with some big shots."
Pierce added 16 points for Iowa and Greg Brunner had 13 points and 10 rebounds. Haluska had 14 points for Iowa and was 7-for-9 from the free-throw line while the rest of the team went 17-for-29. Erek Hansen had six rebounds and five blocked shots for Iowa.
"Our bigs stepped up," said Brunner, one of Iowa's frontcourt players. "We took it to heart. We're not as big or as tall as they are but I thought we played a big game."
Francisco Garcia had 17 points for the Cardinals, who finished 7-for-23 from 3-point range. Ellis Myles added 12 points and eight rebounds.
"We didn't pass the ball very well," Garcia said. "We weren't focused on offense and we tried to do too much for ourselves."
This was the second straight season Iowa beat Louisville in an early matchup. The Hawkeyes won 70-69 in overtime last year in the John Wooden Tradition.
Iowa won this tournament, sponsored by EA Sports, in 1987.
No. 11 North Carolina 86, Brigham Young 50: Raymond Felton made quite a difference for the Tar Heels.
After missing the season-opening loss to Santa Clara because of an NCAA suspension, the junior guard returned to anchor North Carolina's defense in an easy victory over Brigham Young in the opening round of the Maui Invitational. The Tar Heels (1-1) will play either Stanford or Tennessee in today's semifinals.
With Felton back at the point, North Carolina opened the game against BYU (0-1) with a 25-3 run and led by as many as 39. Felton finished with six points and seven assists in 26 minutes. Sean May had 18 points and eight rebounds for the Tar Heels, and Rashad McCants added 13 points.
No. 15 Texas 84, Chaminade 62: The Longhorns (2-0) withstood foul trouble and the 3-point shooting of Chris Reaves for an opening-round victory over the Silverswords (1-1).
P.J. Tucker had 15 points and 11 rebounds for Texas, which will play Iowa in today's semifinals.
Reaves, a junior college transfer, hit his first six 3-point attempts, finished 8-for-10 from long range, and had 33 points for Chaminade.
Kenton Paulino added 14 points, while Kenny Taylor and Jason Klotz each had 12 for Texas, which finished with a 43-28 rebounding edge.
The loss dropped the Division II Silverswords to 4-55 in the eight-team tournament it hosts. Chaminade ended a 30-game losing streak in the tournament last year with a 52-49 win over Villanova in the opening round.
