Cyclones rout WVU by 20
Iowa State's home court dominance continued Saturday as the Cyclones disposed of a top 25 opponent in a key Big 12 match-up.
14th-ranked ISU rolled No. 21 West Virginia, 79-59, breaking a tie in the conference standings and completing a season sweep of the Mountaineers. The win improved Iowa State to 8-4 in the Big 12 and 18-6 overall while WVU slipped to 7-5 in league play and 19-6 overall.
The Cyclones have now won 21 straight games in Hilton Coliseum, including seven in a row against ranked opponents. The 20-point victory over West Virginia tied the school record for largest margin of victory ever for an I-State team over a ranked opponent.
What remains as the biggest challenge for Iowa State is bottling its level of play at home and taking something similar on the road. The Cyclones are 1-4 in Big 12 road games so far this season with the only win coming over West Virginia in Morgantown, 74-73, back on January 10.
Up next for ISU is a Wednesday night game at Oklahoma State, which was tied with WVU at No. 21 in last week's AP top 25. The Cyclones escaped OSU in Ames, 63-61, on January 6.
A 14-2 run to start the second half was the decisive sequence in Iowa State's second win of the year over West Virginia.
The Cyclones led, 36-32, at halftime before the big run pushed the score to 50-34 with 13:23 to play. Back-to-back three-point field goals by Monte Morris keyed the burst for ISU. The Mountaineers did fight back, going on a quick 5-0 flurry to make it 50-39 and later on getting within nine at 55-46 at the 8:16 mark.
Iowa State grew the lead back to 14 points on a Dustin Hogue layup with 5:10 left in the game that made it 66-52. WVU scored five straight points to get the deficit back down to single digits at 66-57 with just over four minutes to go. But the Cyclones finished the game with a dominant 13-2 run to end up with the 20-point victory.
The first half saw I-State led by as many as seven points on several occasions before WVU took the lead at 21-19 on a Gary Browne three-pointer at the 6:32 mark. The Mountaineers still led at 30-29 before ISU went on a 7-0 run, capped by a Matt Thomas three-pointer, to take a 36-30 lead with 29 seconds left in the half. WVU's Browne scored at the buzzer to make it a four-point game at the break.
Morris hit 4-of-4 three-pointers on the way to leading Iowa State with 19 points. Abdel Nader came off the bench to score 16 points, including two on a spectacular half-court alley-oop pass from Morris. The Cyclones shot 56.5 percent from the floor overall and were 6-of-16 on three-pointers. ISU outrebounded WVU 35-31, and held the Mountaineers to 37.9 percent shooting from the field.