No. 3 Iowa State has figured out how to dominate the second half. Now the undefeated Cyclones have to just figure out how to start better.
Iowa State (16-0, 3-0 Big 12) will get a chance to do that Tuesday when they travel to Lawrence, Kan., to take on the No. 22 Jayhawks (11-5, 1-2) in conference action.
Iowa State trailed for most of the first half before coming back to beat Oklahoma State at home 83-71 on Saturday.
“We’ve been fortunate in a handful of games that at halftime — maybe we’re down or just not at our best — and find a way to come out of the locker room and get off to a quick start,” Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger said.
The Cyclones are off to the best start in school history. Otzelberger said his team is getting used to getting the other team’s best effort every game.
“We have a lot of great players in our league and our league is the best league in the country,” he said. “So naturally, they all want to be at their best, and I think we are seeing that. Plus, I think it is a psychological thing when they see that number.”
The Cyclones are one of five unbeaten NCAA Division I teams left in the country.
A bounce-back game from forward Milan Momcilovic helped keep the Cyclones that way Saturday.
The junior forward failed to make a 3-pointer for the first time this season last week against Baylor. His three attempts matched a season low.
He came out inspired Saturday to make sure that didn’t happen again.
He hit six of his 10 shots from the field and was 3 of 5 from the 3-point line. One of his misses was a long heave as the clock expired at halftime. Momcilovic scored 16 of his 18 points in the first half.
Joshua Jefferson led the Cyclones with 19 points. The senior forward leads the Cyclones with 17.7 points per game, followed by Momcilovic at 17.6.
The Jayhawks are coming off an 86-75 loss on the road to West Virginia.
Kansas led by eight with 14 minutes left before the Mountaineers went on a 16-0 run to put the game away.
“We were very poor,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “They backed us down, our guards down, on the post, and we didn’t give much resistance at all. They took advantage of that, and then we didn’t obviously score on the other end. They were tougher, we never stopped them the whole night — they still got 39 the first half. We never stopped them and never made them play poorly.”
The Jayhawks are led by Darryn Peterson, who is projected as a high pick in the NBA draft.
The freshman is averaging 22.6 points per game and 4.7 rebounds in seven games as he has battled through leg injuries. He had 23 points and six rebounds in the loss to the Mountaineers.
Tre White averages 15.2 points and seven rebounds per game. He had 18 points against West Virginia.
White stopped the Mountaineers’ run with eight minutes to go, but by then the Jayhawks had not scored in seven minutes.
“Once you come with that amount of energy going and stuff like that, shots start falling, rebounds start getting missed,” White said of the collapse. ” It was kind of the defensive end that kind of made it an uphill battle.”
Sophomore guard Elmarko Jackson knows the Jayhawks need to get it together soon.
“We’ve got a really good team in Iowa State coming up,” Jackson said. “Got to just focus on that, get back to playing how we play basketball and just being tougher.”
