ISU subdues Sooners in 2nd half
It was a rare treat for Cyclone fans: an Iowa State basketball win that didn’t go down to the wire.
ISU pulled away from Oklahoma for an 80-64 win Saturday evening at Hilton Coliseum in Ames. It was the largest margin of victory for Iowa State since a 28-point win over Mississippi Valley State on Dec. 20. The Cyclones had just one previous double-digit conference win.
After taking out the Sooners, Iowa State is alone in fourth place in the Big 12 with a 7-5 conference mark. The Cyclones are 15-9 overall. ISU plays at Kansas State on Wednesday night.
After an 8-0 Oklahoma run to tie the score at 41, it looked like I-State might need all 40 minutes to come out on top after needing 50 (double overtime) to beat the Sooners in Norman back on Jan. 21.
But Iowa State broke away from that tie score with 00:00 to play by going on a 21-4 run for a commanding 62-45 lead at the 00:00 mark. The Cyclones would go on to extend the lead to 20 points at 68-48 with 00:00 to go, their largest lead of the game.
ISU threatened to pull away from the Big 12’s last-place team three times before it actually did. The Cyclones started fast and led, 18-9, on a Naz Mitrou-Long three-pointer at the 13:21 mark of the first half. The Sooners came back with a 9-3 spurt to cut it to three at 21-18.
A three-pointer by Matt Thomas gave I-State a 28-20 lead with about seven minutes to go in the half. But Oklahoma scored the game’s next nine points for its only short-lived lead of the game. Jordan Woodard’s layup with 3:39 to play in the opening half put the Sooners on top 29-28. That last 48 seconds until Mitrou-Long drained a three-pointer to spark a 10-0 run by the Cyclones to finish the half. Monte Morris’ bucket with four seconds to go before halftime put Iowa State up 38-29 at the break.
The Oklahoma scored 12 of the first 15 points in the second half to pull even at 41 before Iowa State seized control.
Mitrou-Long led Iowa State scorers with 23 points. Also in double figures were Thomas and Morris with 13 points, Deonte Burton with 11 and Donovan Jackson with 10. Freshman Solomon Young, starting his first game as a Cyclone, scored eight points.
Morris had nine assists, no turnovers and three steals for ISU. He moved into third place on Iowa State’s career steals chart. The Cyclones only turned the ball over four times as a team and outscored OU 17-5 on points off turnovers.
ISU shot exactly the same percentage (46.2) from three-point range as it did from inside the arc. The Cyclones made 12-of-26 three-point tries and were 30-65 overall on the night.
Oklahoma shot 39.3 percent (24-61) from the field overall and only made 3-of-13 three-point attempts (23.1%). The Sooners outrebounded Iowa State, 47-32.
Rachel Mummey USA Today
