Cyclones finish off Bison late
Don't let the final score fool you, but Iowa State's 84-64 victory over North Dakota State was actually a pretty close game for much of the way. It was clearly not the greatest effort on the young season for Steve Prohm's team - playing for the fourth time in eight days - as it struggled to put away the Bison until the very end.
The 3-point shot didn't fall for much of the night, but the Cyclones found ways to score in other ways. Jameel McKay put together another tremendous line with 15 points and 19 rebounds, while Abdel Nader came up big with a game-high 21 points. Monte Morris chipped in with 18 points, while Georges Niang battled through a thigh contusion to contribute 15.
After the Cyclones' strong finish to the first half and nice start to the second that resulted in a double-digit lead, North Dakota State was still able to chip away. Dexter Werner's bucket in the paint cut the ISU lead to 50-48 with 12:46 left to play, erasing what had been an 11-point deficit just five minutes earlier.
Trying to hold off the tenacious Bison, I-State got a steals and layups from Hallice Cooke and Monte Morris in consecutive possessions to open up a nine-point with just over eight minutes left to play. One minute later, Naz Mitrou-Long added a layup of his own and Georges Niang a 3-point play and the Cyclones grabbed what had been their biggest lead of the game, 70-56.
It was a sluggish first half for the Cyclones, who couldn't pull away to a sizeable lead. After leading early on, North Dakota State grabbed the advantage later in the first half, 25-24, when Carlin Dupree hit a layup with 5:54 left. The bucket capped a 10-0 run by the Bison. Trey Miller's 3-pointer with just over two minutes remaining put the Bison in front 30-27.
The Cyclones responded in a big way to Miller's three by scoring the final nine points of the first half. Jameel McKay, who had 11 points and nine rebounds at the break, put the exclamation point on the flurry with a dunk over two North Dakota State defenders.
I-State had a brief scare in the latter stages of the first half when Niang went down with a thigh contusion. The senior forward was helped off the floor by McKay and headed to the locker room with team doctors. However, Niang headed back to the bench a few minutes later and returned to action.
The Cyclones get a much-needed five days off before Buffalo comes to town for a game next Monday at 8 p.m.
It was over when... during back-to-back possessions, Hallice Cooke and Monte Morris came up with steals and west coast to coast for layups. Just as the Bison were once again chipping away at a deficit, the Cyclones were able to pull ahead to a 65-56 lead with 7:41 left to play. The quick spurt led to a Bison timeout. Following the break, NDSU never really threatened the rest of the way.
The player-of-the-game was... it's hard to argue against McKay being the player of the game with his 15 points and 19 rebounds, but Abdel Nader played a huge role in this one by picking up his offensive game when Niang was gimpy and dealing with a thigh contusion suffered early in the game. The senior forward scored 21 points to go with five rebounds and three assists. Nader caught fire after the break, scoring 14 points in the second half.
The play-of-the-game was... Hallice Cooke - in transition - firing a dart inside to a wide-open Jameel McKay under the basket for a dunk. The bucket came during a key run midway through the second half when the Cyclones built on a two-point lead, taking a 61-52 advantage.
What to take from the game is... that the Cyclones could play one of their worst games of the young season and still end up winning by 20 points against a North Dakota State team that made the 2014 NCAA Tournament and beat Oklahoma. Not many times in recent years has ISU shot just 26 percent (7-of-27) from the 3-point line and still won so convincingly. While the outside shot was not there for Steve Prohm's team all night, they figured out a way to score from inside the 3-point arc, making 28-of-43 two-point shots (65 percent). Iowa State looked to be worn out from playing four games in eight days, but was still the more conditioned team at the end and simply wore down the Bison. The Cyclones scored 12 of the game's final 16 points and turned this one into a blowout on paper.