Bruce Pearl wanted to calm things down.

The Auburn coach saw his team’s lead, once at 17 points midway through the second half, dwindle to four with about five minutes to go in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. Iowa star Kris Murray just threw down a dunk in transition to get the Hawkeyes within four, so Pearl promptly called a timeout.

As his players gathered near the bench, Pearl calmly posed a question to them: If he told them before the game that they’d be up four with five minutes to play against a higher-seeded team with a potent offense, would they take it?

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“I think we would have taken it,” Pearl said.

The Tigers took a collective deep breath during that stoppage in play, and then they recomposed themselves and responded in remarkable fashion. Auburn withstood a late surge from Iowa and held on for an 83-75 win Thursday night at Legacy Arena, keeping its season alive and advancing to the second round for a showdown Saturday against top-seeded Houston.

“It wasn’t nothing,” freshman guard Tre Donaldson said. “BP’s relaxed. Y’all see BP as always yelling, screaming and always red. He was chilled, relaxed and making jokes. We’re good. He has the confidence in us, and we had the confidence in him. We just played Auburn basketball. When we play Auburn basketball, it’s really hard to beat us.”

That was the case in the Tigers’ first-round matchup, at least, as they weathered a storm from the Hawkeyes.

The Tigers built a 17-point lead with 10:50 to go against the Hawkeyes on the back of a 16-5 run that included a trio of 3-pointers from Donaldson, who went 3-for-3 from deep and finished with 11 points in his postseason debut. Even as Legacy Arena turned into Neville Arena North after Allen Flanigan’s and-1 gave Auburn its biggest lead of the night, Pearl and his team knew an Iowa run could be looming.

That’s what Iowa does. It’s a dangerous team that can catch fire from deep and quickly put together runs. At the timeout before Flanigan’s free-throw attempt, Pearl reminded his players about that too. He pointed to Iowa’s miraculous comeback against Michigan State on Feb. 25. The Hawkeyes trailed by 13 late in regulation of that game, but they stormed back with 23 points in the span of 90 seconds—making six 3-pointers along the way—to force overtime, where they outlasted the Spartans, 112-106.

“We knew they’d come back,” Pearl said.

Iowa did exactly what Auburn expected. The Hawkeyes put together a 21-8 run over the next six minutes to cut Auburn’s lead to four. Fran McAffery’s team made 6-of-10 shots during that run, including three of their six attempts from beyond the arc. The energy from the once-raucous crowd at Legacy Arena shifted from exuberant to anxious.

“We knew Iowa was one of those teams that could get hot at any second,” guard Zep Jasper said. “I know the fans started calming down a little bit, but it was one of those things that, oh my God, like I was on the bench at one point and they started hitting threes. I was like, ‘Oh my God, these boys are getting hot.’

That’s when Pearl called the timeout for his team to compose itself. He reminded them of the position they were in, that they expected this from Iowa—and that they’ve been in these scenarios before.

It has been a season full of narrow losses and close calls for Auburn, which has struggled at times to close out games or hold onto leads late. Seven of its 12 losses this season were decided by five points or fewer.

“We’ve been here before,” forward Chris Moore said. “We’ve been here before, and it’s very evident. So, now it’s time to show we’ve grown as a team, just like every other team is supposed to grow coming into this tournament.”

Coming out of the timeout, Auburn began to string together stops. Iowa missed each of its next four shot attempts, including three straight attempts from 3-point range. After the Hawkeyes made six of their first 10 3-point attempts in the second half (which came after a 0-for-9 performance from deep in the first half), they connected on just one of their final eight attempts from deep over the game’s final six minutes.

“The key was just not losing your man, and also they were getting a lot of offensive rebounds,” Jasper said. “They’re a team, when they get offensive rebounds, they got shooters, and they can kick it out anywhere. It was pretty important just to stay on those guys that can shoot the rock, because every time they shot the ball off the offensive rebound, I feel like they made it because their guys are like 6-6, 6-7, so they shot right over the top of our small guards.”

As Auburn put together stops on defense and slowed Iowa’s high-octane offense, it also found answers of its own on the offensive end in the form of Wendell Green Jr. The veteran point guard was crucial to the Tigers’ ability to weather the storm late. After Iowa made an effort to wall him off for much of the night, he found his spots down the stretch.

Of Green’s 15 points against Iowa, 10 of them came after Murray’s dunk made it a four-point game. Green came out of that timeout and attacked the basket for a tough layup to push Auburn’s lead back to six. He followed that with four consecutive free throws after Iowa again cut the lead to four.

Green, who added a pair of assists in the final minute and a half, made all six of his free-throw attempts in the final four minutes, as Auburn went 10-of-10 from the line down the stretch (Johni Broome was 4-for-4 late).

“That’s what Wen does,” Broome said. “He lives for those moments. He’s just one of those guys that isn’t afraid of nothing. He’s not afraid of how people think of him. He knows what he’s got to do.”

Green let everyone know it in the locker room after the game, too. After Broome noted that Green’s nickname is “Icy Wen” for a reason, Green flashed his chain — which features his silhouette in the mold of the NBA logo — and reminded everyone within earshot that, “I’m Icy.”

Thanks to Green’s strong close and a refocused energy on the defensive end, Auburn was able to withstand Iowa’s big run and live to see another game. In a season filled with disappointing finishes, the Tigers turned the tables in the NCAA Tournament with their season on the line.

“A lot of them we haven’t ended up winning how we wanted it to happen in close games, but we got this one,” forward Jaylin Williams said. “This one, we don’t got no choice. Like, if it’s close at the end now, we got to keep competing. For us as a team, we just stuck together, stayed connected and it fell together tonight to close out the game.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.