Des Moines Register columnist Randy Peterson suffered what the newspaper said was a broken leg when Iowa State fans stormed the court after a win over Iowa.
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Iowa State is led by senior forward Georges Niang who is coming off a career 31 point performance in the Cyclones’ win over Buffalo. I’m not going to get in his way. The strategy worked, as Thomas provided tight man-to-man defense and helped hold Uthoff to two points in the second half. Iowa’s three losses have come by a combined 12 points.
Iowa was shooting the lights out for most of the night, hitting 11-of-27 shots from three-point range.
“They do a really good job of, if you take a bad shot, or if you turn it over, they score”, said Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery. He couldn’t miss from the perimeter, and when defenders stepped out too far on him, he drove past them easily and created makable shots for himself around the rim. Be the best point guard in the country like you are and make the play.
The other big obstacle in playing at Iowa State is the home-court atmosphere.
The fourth-ranked Cyclones pulled off another stunner on Thursday, beating back the rival Hawkeyes with a furious late surge.
“Personally, I’m the vocal leader on the team”. They are the ones, after all, responsible for everyone’s safety. No one seemed to be demanding the ball down the stretch, willing to put the onus on themselves to stop the bleeding. They can spread teams out and make opponents respect every player as a scorer.
With all due respect to Iowa State, a 20 point lead should never, ever be given away like that. In other words, there does not appear to be a “winning culture” in that locker room. So, he tipped it right into Niang’s hands without even looking at him, and Niang drilled it. Niang got the credit for the bucket, but that was just one of many instances in which McKay kept Iowa State in the ballgame down low.
Peter Jok took a turn lighting up the scoreboard to open the second half, scoring 14 of the team’s first 16 points in the first five minutes and change of the second half. Can they defend at an elite level? It all pulled ISU within one, 82-81. Will McKay be able to survive being the only adequate big man on the roster?
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After seeming to weather a classic Iowa State run, the Hawkeyes blew an eight-point lead in the last 1:43.
