Texas at Iowa State final score: Cyclones stifle Longhorns offense, dominate in 85-76 victory
By Brian Spaen
It’s been a while since Iowa State thoroughly dominated an opponent in Big 12 play, and they were able to beat Texas by holding them to poor shooting and making clutch shots in an 85-76 victory at Ames.
Texas Longhorns forward
Connor Lammert
(21) and Iowa State Cyclones guard
DeAndre Kane
(50) get tangled at James H. Hilton Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sports
The Cyclones (20-5, 8-5) had three players score over 20 points – Melvin Ejim, Georges Niang, and DeAndre Kane combined for 67 points. Ejim didn’t get many boards in the second half (finished with eight total rebounds), which prevented him from picking up another double-double in his career. Niang added in five assists and four rebounds; Kane had five assists and seven rebounds.
All three of those players went 24-of-37 from the field. In comparison, the entire Longhorns (20-6, 9-4) team went 23-of-70. That’s quite the difference.
However, Texas owning the edge in rebounding (45 to 35) and hitting an uncharacteristic 23-of-25 from the free-throw line kept them in the game. Isaiah Taylor led the team in scoring with 26 points, making all 10 free throw attempts and went 8-of-20 from the field with missing his lone 3-point attempt.
Jonathan Holmes had 14 points and led the team with nine rebounds. Javan Felix got a little hot in the second half, but he was very inefficient again going 6-of-22 from the field.
With the win, Iowa State has made things interesting in the Big 12 regular season title race. Texas sits with four losses, the Cyclones have five losses, and Kansas has just two. If the Longhorns beat the Jayhawks on Saturday night, then ISU still has a chance if KU loses a few more games down the stretch.
- Iowa State played just seven players in the game. The bench, which featured Matt Thomas and Naz Long, attempted just seven shots. Thomas made two 3-pointers and Long missed both 3-point attempts.
- I projected Connor Lammert in the five players to watch, but I didn’t expect him to make two of Texas’ seven 3-point field goals.
Iowa State will go on the road to take on TCU after going 2-0 during their homestand. Tip-off is slated for 3:00 PM Central time on Saturday and the game will be televised on ESPN2.