Collapse in Iowa City.

Three days removed from knocking off then-No. 15 UCLA in Lincoln, Nebraska hit the road to Iowa looking for its first Big Ten road win of the season, but lost 97-87 in overtime to the Hawkeyes on Tuesday night.

It was a game that saw a 15-point Husker lead, 52-37, at the 14:54-mark of the second half. But it was also a game that saw a shooter who's notorious for getting hot, Payton Sandfort, become a flamethrower in the final 25 minutes.

Sandfort, a 6-foot-8, 215-pound wing, scored zero points in the first half but went berserk in the second half and overtime with 30 points, six threes and eight free throws. His teammate, Josh Dix, scored 31 points, 16 of which came in the first half, where he hit four 3s.

Iowa made 17 3s on the night. Nebraska hit nine. Head coach Fred Hoiberg said after the game he didn't think the transition defense was good enough when the Hawkeyes were on the run.

But even when the Huskers fought late and Brice Williams, who finished with 28 points and four rebounds, did the amazing by draining a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to send the game into overtime tied at 76, the Huskers had a second collapse in the extra five minutes.

Iowa had more gas left in the tank, and Nebraska didn't have an answer — it was outscored 21-11.

"Disappointing. There's a lot of things we're going to learn from this game and we'll get back to work," Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg told Huskers Radio Network after the game. "It's going to be a painful film session when we get back to Lincoln, but we're going to have to figure out how to finish games better when we have a lead.

"We've done a solid job for the most part, we've finished games very well, we've had a lot of tight games down the stretch. Tonight we just made a lot of mental errors, and I thought our emotions got a little out of check."

Nebraska drops to 12-3 overall, 2-2 against the Big Ten while Iowa improves to 11-4, 2-2. A trip to No. 20 Purdue is coming up for Nebraska on Sunday with an early tip of 11 a.m.

There were key stats that tell the story from Tuesday night. One was the free throws. Nebraska went just 55% (12-of-22) from the line, which isn't what the Huskers have shown throughout the season. They entered the game shooting 77.3% as a team, third best in the conference. Rollie Worster went 2-of-7 from the line Tuesday night.

"If we make a couple free throws, which we've done a great job of all year, we win that game in regulation," Hoiberg said.

But there was also shot-making problems, especially from close range. The Huskers ended the game connecting on just 15 of their 27 layup attempts. They grabbed 14 offensive rebounds, eight more than Iowa, but had only a 12-11 edge in second-chance points.

While Juwan Gary was a beast on the boards — he had 13 rebounds and a whopping eight offensive rebounds — he was 5-of-21 from the field and 0-of-3 from 3. One of Nebraska's top scorers, Connor Essegian, scored only six points off the bench.

"This is a hard one," Hoiberg said. "This is going to be a tough one for our guys, but you have to find a way to bounce back. That's what good teams do."

Nebraska will travel to West Lafayette for an 11 a.m. matchup with No. 20 Purdue (11-4, 3-1) on Sunday.

After consecutive losses to No. 17 Texas A&M and No. 2 Auburn, Purdue has rattled off three straight wins over Toledo, Northwestern and Minnesota, the latter two of which are at the bottom of the Big Ten standings early on.

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