Cyclones rally from huge deficit, knock off Hawks
After almost an entire game full of them, finally, there were no answers from the Hawkeyes. Monte Morris' 10-foot jumper with eight seconds remaining gave the fourth-ranked Cyclones an unbelievable come-from-behind victory, 83-82. Iowa's Jarrod Uthoff, who had plenty of solutions especially in the first half, watched his desperation heave at the buzzer hit the front iron and rattle out and Iowa State had a one-point victory and 8-0 start to the season.
The Cyclone comeback ranks right up there with any of them in recent memory, and was at least on the same level as last year's victory over Oklahoma. Until Morris' jumper to close things out, the Cyclones hadn't led since having a 4-3 lead with 17:21 left in the first half.
Just how far back was ISU in this one? After Peter Jok's 3-pointer with 14:55 left to play, Iowa led 64-55 and had seemed to finally have the dagger that put the Cyclones away for good.
Iowa State started its comeback bid with an 11-0 run just past the midpoint of the second half to cut the Hawkeye lead to 69-64. Monte Morris' short jumper in transition capped off the quick flurry with 8:05 left to play. Iowa got a jumper from Jok to stem the tide and put Iowa back up by seven points with 7:32 remaining.
The Cyclones later got to within one point on two separate occasions, but Iowa again answered with five straight points that included a 3-pointer from Anthony Clemmons that made it 80-74 with 3:18 left to play. But ISU would close it out by scoring nine of the game's final 11 points.
Morris came on strong down the stretch and scored 15 of his 20 points in the second half, shooting 8-of-15 overall from the field. The junior point guard was his usual efficient self, dishing out nine assists to just one turnover.
Jameel McKay had his ups and downs as Iowa built a huge lead early in the first half, but the big man turned it on and finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds. Matt Thomas came off the bench to chip in with 19 points, while Georges Niang contributed 16.
Turnovers plagued the Cyclones during the first half, as they coughed the ball up 12 times and allowed Iowa to score 16 points off those. But in the final 20 minutes, ISU turned the ball over once.
Behind a pair of 3-pointers from Uthoff and another from Mike Gesell, Iowa jumped out to a 17-6 lead just moments after the first media timeout. The Cyclones were plagued by missed shots around the basket.
Matt Thomas later answered with a pair from beyond the arc to cut the deficit to 19-14 with just over 13 minutes left in the half. However, the Hawkeyes had an answer with a quick 6-0 run in advance of the second media timeout. Uthoff scored 16 of his team's first 27 points.
Iowa stretched its lead to as much as 20 later in the half when Uthoff hit a jumper on the fast break, making the score 43-23 with 4:23 left.
The Cyclones finally showed some signs of life in the final couple minutes as Naz Mitrou-Long rolled in a lay-up in transition and Monte Morris nailed a 3-pointer from the left baseline. ISU cut the Hawks' lead to 49-35 at the break.
I-State slacked in several aspects during a listless first half, the first of which was committing 12 turnovers which led to 16 Iowa points. Defensively, the Cyclones didn't have an answer for Uthoff, who was red hot for the entire 20 minutes. The senior big man hit 11-of-13 shots from the floor, including 5-of-6 from beyond the 3-point arc.
It was over when... This is an easy one, when Monte Morris hit the jumper with eight seconds remaining to give the Cyclones their first lead since early on. Then, Jarrod Uthoff's shot rimmed off the back iron as the clock expired on ISU's one-point victory.
The player-of-the-game was... This is a hard one. The obvious choice is Morris, but it's hard to argue against Matt Thomas who almost single-handedly kept the Cyclones within striking range in the first half and then was assigned to guard Uthoff in the second half and helped hold the senior big man to just 1-of-7 shooting over the final 20 minutes.
The play-of-the-game was... see, "It was over when…"
What to take from the game is... that the Cyclones need to become a much better first half team and do it quickly. In customary fashion, Steve Prohm's team got off to a slow start in all facets of the game and watched a hot-shooting Iowa team take it to them on the road. Iowa shot 19-of-32 from the field in the first half and took advantage of mistakes, unlike several of ISU's opponents during the team's 7-0 start. Turnovers, bad defense and missed free throws helped make things worse. Upper-echelon talent in the Big 12 will exploit slow starts and have the talent to hold off the Cyclones down the stretch. This has been a taxing stretch for the team, coming off a 21-point victory over Buffalo on Monday and heading into a Sunday afternoon matchup with Arkansas-Pine Bluff. But a veteran squad figured out a way to dig down deep and pull out an improbable win.