Iowa State hung around for nearly one half of basketball on Friday night, but that was with Iowa's All-America big man Luka Garza on the bench in foul trouble.
That changed in the final 20 minutes, as Garza scored 25 of his game-high 34 points, making all 10 shots from the field before departing. In one stretch of the second half, Garza scored 21 consecutive points in a span of 5:15 for the Hawks, as the host team rolled to a 100-73 victory. It was Iowa's fourth win over Iowa State in the past five CyHawk matchups.
The senior big man encountered foul trouble early in the game, missing much of the latter stages of the first half with two fouls. That allowed the Cyclones to hang around and even lead momentarily. Tyler Harris' consecutive 3-pointers in a 45-second span gave the Cyclones a 32-29 edge with 7:39 left in the first half.
But it was all downhill from there for Steve Prohm's squad. The Hawks outscored the Cyclones 23-9 the rest of the half, leading 52-41 at the break, and never led by less than double digits the rest of the way.
I-State hit on 15-of-32 shots from the field in the first half, but slumped to just under 40-percent in the final 20 minutes. Meanwhile, the Hawks remained steady the entire way and hit 37-of-68 in the game.
The Cyclones were outrebounded 38-32, turned the ball 17 times and were outscored 26-13 in points-off-turnovers.
Javan Johnson enjoyed a nice game for I-State, scoring 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting. Rasir Bolton chipped in with 18 points and Jalen Coleman-Lands added 17.
While three of the team's top guards performed well on the offensive end, it was a dismal game in the post from veterans Solomon Young and George Conditt who combined to hit just 2-of-7 from the floor and score six points. The duo was also exposed on the defensive end by Garza and Jack Nunge, who came off the bench to contribute a double-double (17 points and 10 rebounds).
The Cyclones fell to 1-2 in the non-conference slate and open Big 12 play on Tuesday night by hosting Kansas State at 8 p.m.