The Iowa State Cyclones fill face one of the 2016 NCAA Tournament’s Cinderella teams, the AR Little Rock Trojans, in a Saturday evening basketball game that will send the victor into the Sweet 16. “I ain’t got time for flukes”.
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And Little Rock soon wilted. His drive and basket with 12.7 seconds left gave Iowa State its biggest lead of the first half at 40-26. The Trojans are into the second round for the second time in school history and are attempting to advance to their first Sweet 16.3. He passed Barry Stevens to become 2nd all-time leading scorer in school history. He made 11 of 18 shots from the floor and 3 of 5 three-pointers for the Cyclones, who shot 56.6 percent from the floor and made 11 of 21 three-pointers.
While Niang provided the offense, fellow senior Monte Morris’ defense on Hagins was key in stopping the guard.
Hagins hit a jumper just before the half for his first points of the game. Sharpshooter Matt Thomas scored 16 points, Abdel Nader added nine points and Deonte Burton had eight.
Iowa State forward Georges Niang, third from left, goes up for a shot as Arkansas-Little Rock guards Jermaine Ruttley and Kemy Osse and forward Maurius Hill, from left, defend during Saturday’s game.
“I think he’s a great ambassador for college basketball, too”.
“I take my hat off to my teammates”, Morris said. Josh Hagins scored 31 points with 29 of them coming in the second half as the Trojans got the lead and held on for the huge win.
Only 3.6 percent of approximately 13 million total entries had Arkansas-Little Rock pulling off this upset, and only 13.1 percent had it in the second round in the first place.
The Trojans, who overcame a 13-point deficit in the final 3:30 of regulation in Thursday’s double-overtime upset of Purdue, found themselves in that same situation as Hagins hit another 3 with just less than four minutes to go.
With Morris taking on the primary task of guarding Hagins, the Cyclones did what Purdue couldn’t – contain him. And he’s the only current collegian who’s collected 2,000 points, 700 rebounds and 400 assists in his career. Iowa State is 9-0 all time against Sun Belt Conference teams.
“I think this is my 22nd year in coaching, and every year when the season ends, the locker room is always filed with tears”. I didn’t cry this year.
“No question. To be in the huddle and to say things and for people to not say things while you’re speaking, you have to have respect from others”.
Ranked 22nd in the nation, Iowa State has an average of 16.5 assists per game.
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Little Rock: That nice dinner that Beard talked about Friday when trying to keep his players in the moment: “At our banquet this year we’ll probably have steak and lobster, not grilled chicken because it’s been an unbelievable year”.
