AMES, Iowa – Georges Niang scored a career-high 18 points to pace Iowa State (11-4 overall, 1-1 Big 12) to an 82-62 win over Texas (8-8 overall, 0-3 Big 12) Saturday afternoon in Hilton Coliseum.
Niang led a group of four players in double figure scoring, including 16 from Will Clyburn, who also grabbed nine boards in the victory. The win increases ISU’s homecourt winning streak to 16 games, the fourth-best streak in school history. ISU has also won eighth-straight Big 12 games at home.
The Cyclones committed a season-low five turnovers, as ISU head coach Fred Hoiberg recorded the 50th victory in his career.
It was a tight game for most of the opening period until Tyrus McGee buried back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Cyclones a 27-15 lead with 9:04 left before the break.
The Longhorns fought back with a 10-3 run to cut the Cyclone lead to 30-25 with a little over five minutes left before intermission. Ioannis Papapetrou knocked down a trey and Javan Felix made a lay-up to cap off the Longhorn run.
Moments later, the Cyclones used the three-ball to get back on track, as McGee and Niang hit treys in back-to-back possessions to push the Cyclone lead to 36-25 with 3:22 remaining in the first half.
ISU went into the break with a 42-31 lead, as Niang had 10 first-half points.
UT started to chip away at the Cyclone lead early in the second half, inching closer at 51-46 after a Demarcus Holland bucket with 12:57 left in the game.
ISU still clung to a six-point lead at 56-50 with 10:51 left until McGee jumpstarted the Cyclones again. McGee drilled a deep trey and then was fouled on a 3-pointer, making all three free-throws to give ISU a 62-50 lead with 9:26 remaining.
After UT trimmed the lead back down to seven points, back-to-back 3-pointers from Chris Babb and Clyburn gave ISU a 71-58 advantage with 5:47 remaining.
The Cyclone lead reached 17 points at 79-62 after Niang scored down low on back-to-back possessions with under four minutes remaining.
Korie Lucious handed out nine assists and scored 10 points in the victory. McGee had 15 points on 4-of-8 shooting from downtown, the 11th time this season he has made three or more treys.
The Cyclones are still the only team in the nation to score 70 points in every game this season.
Iowa State remains at home on Wednesday, playing host to West Virginia on ESPN2. Tipoff is at 8 p.m. CST.
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