AMES ― The Iowa State vs. Kansas basketball game hardly needs any added introductions.
Plenty of fans lined up hours ahead of tip-off and some even camped overnight to reserve their spot in line. Their patience was rewarded with a marquee 74-57 win for the Cyclones.
The hype was already in place for this matchup of Big 12 rivals, but it continued to build as the Cyclones took the court for the first time as the No. 2-ranked team in the country against the 10th-ranked Jayhawks.
Curtis Jones led the Cyclones with 25 points on 9-of-17 shooting. He also had six rebounds, two steals and four turnovers. Usually serving as the sixth man for Iowa State, he entered the starting lineup in place of Milan Momcilovic, who is out indefinitely with a hand injury.
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Dishon Jackson added 17 points, four rebounds and a block off the bench. Brandton Chatfield earned his first start as a Cyclone, replacing Jackson on Wednesday night.
Tamin Lipsey and Joshua Jefferson each had 10 points. Jefferson also had 12 rebounds.
It was a back-and-forth start to the game until Jones hit back-to-back 3-pointers to get the soldout crowd going and give the Cyclones a 15-11 lead with 11:12 left in the first half. Iowa State never relinquished the lead from there and after those two baskets, it started to tighten up its effort on the boards and defensive end.
Iowa State closed the first half with an 8-0 run to take a 40-30 lead over the Jayhawks.
Kansas had shown an ability to make key defensive adjustments at halftime in recent outings. The Jayhawks held both Cincinnati and Arizona State to fewer than 15 second-half points in their last two games entering Wednesday.
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The Jayhawks didn’t make it easy after the break, holding Iowa State to 9-of-28 (32.1%) in the second half, but the Cyclones worked through offensive lulls. They drew fouls to get to the free-throw line and had a counter for every Kansas push.
Kansas went on a 9-0 run, while Iowa State had a five-minute scoring drought early in the second half. The Jayhawks capitalized on Cyclone turnovers and offensive struggles to trim the deficit down.
Jefferson substituted back into the game and broke the drought with a post-up finish, and Kansas answered back with Flory Bidunga basket to trim the Iowa State lead down to 44-41 with 13:59 left.
That would be the closest the Jayhawks would get to catching the Cyclones.
Kansas cut the lead down to five points twice, but Iowa State would get on a timely run to extend its lead. A four-point series between a Demarion Watson free throw and a Lipsey 3-pointer ignited the Hilton Coliseum crowd, as Iowa State took a 61-52 lead going into the under-4 media time-out.
An 11-0 Cyclone run in the closing minutes shortly afterwards sealed the victory.
Zeke Mayo paced the Jayhawks with 17 points. Hunter Dickinson was held to six points on 3-of-10 shooting, with eight rebounds, four turnovers and two blocks. Kansas committed 17 turnovers in the loss, which turned into 23 Cyclone points off turnovers.
Iowa State improves to 15-1 overall and 5-0 in Big 12 Conference play. The Cyclones are headed on the road for their next game at West Virginia on Saturday. Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m. CT.
Eugene Rapay covers Iowa State athletics for the Des Moines Register. Contact Eugene at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @erapay5.
