Clones Confidential
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Iowa State basketball: Cyclones destroy Texas Tech in Jameel McKay’s first start

By Brian Spaen

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Jameel McKay makes his debut start with Iowa State basketball on Saturday, and his energy sparked a complete blowout that should have happened two weeks ago against Texas Tech.

There was no looking ahead this time around. McKay was incredible from the beginning to walking off the court for the last time with eight minutes to go. He had a bruising dunk for the Cyclones’ second basket of the game with an assist from Georges Niang.

Iowa State got up by as much as 21 points in the first half after McKay put in a layup to make it 29-8 with 2:58 to go. Needless to say, it didn’t get any better. The Cyclones outscored the Red Raiders 40-21 in the second half. Texas Tech didn’t score between the first and last media timeouts with the exception of a layup with 3:59 to go.

Remember when 3-pointers were a big thing for Texas Tech two weeks ago? They went just 4-for-20 from the field today. Toddrick Gotcher, who made five of them in the last game, made three Randy Onwuasor made the last one in garbage time.

Obviously, the game ball goes to McKay. In his starting debut, McKay made all seven shots. He finished with 17 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 blocks.

Iowa State went 8-for-22 from the 3-point line but shot 56 percent from the field overall. They had 18 assists to 28 field goals made with 10 turnovers. It was perfect execution flowing through McKay on offense and defense, and the Cyclones are damn near unbeatable if they can play at this level more consistently.

Other notes

  • Monte Morris wasn’t needed much on offense, but was still a solid distributor with six assists and zero turnovers.
  • Abdel Nader may be the new go-to sixth man off the bench. He had nine points in five assists.
  • Naz Long found his groove from long range going 3-for-7 from downtown and finishing with 15 points and four rebounds.

Next up

Iowa State will have another quick turnaround with their third straight Big Monday game. They will travel to Norman to take on Oklahoma. Tipoff is at 8:00 PM Central time and it will be broadcast on ESPN and WatchESPN.

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