Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas (AP) - Roy Devyn Marble scored 30 points before leaving with a leg injury, and No. 23 Iowa rallied from a 15-point, second-half deficit to beat Xavier 77-74 in overtime at the Battle 4 Atlantis quarterfinals Thursday night.
The Hawkeyes (6-0) never led in regulation, but never trailed in overtime.
Zach McCabe scored 11 points, and Gabriel Olaseni had 10 points and 11 rebounds for the Hawkeyes. Aaron White's 10-point night ended with a clutch tip-in with 1:40 left in overtime.
Xavier (5-1) had three 3-point tries all bounce off the rim in the final 10 seconds. Justin Martin led the Musketeers with 15 points, Semaj Christon added 14, Myles Davis scored 12 and Matt Stainbrook finished with 11.
Iowa will meet either Tennessee or Texas-El Paso in Friday's semifinals, with Xavier facing the other in the consolation round.
Xavier led by 15 early in the second half and wasted it all. The Musketeers had 55 points in the first 28 minutes of regulation, then 14 in the final 12 minutes before the extra session.
And Iowa was making life pretty easy on the Musketeers. The Hawkeyes missed 13 of their first 15 shots of the second half, and even gave Xavier two bonus points during intermission. As the teams were leaving the floor for halftime, Iowa coach Fran McCaffery earned a technical foul for arguing with the referees, so 37-30 became 39-30 after a pair of free throws before the second half started.
Xavier's lead was 55-42 with 12 minutes left. That's when Iowa remembered to start putting the ball through the hole.
A 3-pointer by Marble, a dunk from Aaron White and another 3 from Marble _ all in the span of about 70 seconds _ got Iowa right back into things. Another stop led to a possession where Marble hit a pair of free throws with 8:09 left, and Melsahn Basabe's dunk in transition capped a 12-0 run that drew Iowa within 55-54.
Xavier pushed the lead back to six, with Stainbrook getting a three-point play and assisting on another basket, before Iowa closed within one yet again.
With 2:06 left in regulation and Iowa down four, the Hawkeyes figured to have lost their best shot at a comeback.
Marble, who was getting his right calf worked on during at least one previous timeout because of cramping, went down near his team's bench because of another cramp, writing and screaming in obvious pain.
He had 30 of Iowa's 63 points at the time, and without him, the Hawkeyes' comeback chore figured to get considerably tougher.
No Marble?
No problem, somehow.
Olaseni made a pair of free throws, Mike Gesell hit a 10-footer with 1:40 left after a turnover, and Iowa had finally tied the game. Both teams wound up missing chances at the end of regulation and to the extra session they went, tied at 69-all.
Before the game was 4 minutes old, Iowa was facing what was its biggest deficit of the season.
Christon had a pair of early dunks for Xavier, the Hawkeyes came out cold, and it was 11-2 Musketeers right out of the gate. In Iowa's first five games, the largest lead by any opponent was seven points.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
