Courtesy: cyclones.com –
AMES, Iowa – Will Clyburn tallied 24 points and 10 boards to aid Iowa State (14-5 overall, 4-2 Big 12) to a 73-67 win over No. 11 Kansas State (15-4 overall, 4-2 Big 12) Saturday afternoon in Hilton Coliseum.
Clyburn, who recorded his fifth double-double of the season, scored 17 points in the second half to help ISU hold off the Wildcats. He was helped by 15 points from Georges Niang and 11 points from Tyrus McGee.
The Cyclones have now won 18-straight games at home and defeated 10 consecutive league opponents in Hilton Coliseum, including a streak of three wins over ranked foes.
Iowa State mounted a nine-point lead (24-15) with 6:18 left in the first half after a Georges Niang reverse lay-up. The Cyclones took advantage of a five-minute scoring drought by the Wildcats while building their early lead.
KSU bounced back with a 12-2 run to end the half and make it 27-26 KSU at the break. A Clyburn dunk was the only ISU field goal in the final six minutes of the first half, and the Wildcats made a pair of treys in the run to take the lead at the break.
Poor free-throw shooting hurt the Cyclones in the opening period, as ISU converted just 3-of-10 shots at the charity stripe, including missing a pair of one-and-one opportunities. Iowa State finished 10-of-22 for the game.
The Cyclones started off hot in the second half, draining 5-of-7 from 3-point range to start the half and help the home team take a 44-40 lead with 14:08 remaining. Clyburn and Lucious both hit clutch treys to help ISU retake the lead.
A Tyrus McGee trey made it 49-45 ISU, but Will Spradling countered with a 3-pointer, was fouled, and made the free throw to convert the four-point play and tie the game at 49-49 with 11:01 remaining.
Martavious Irving gave KSU its first lead of the second half on a fast-break lay-up (53-51), but Niang answered with a 3-pointer on the other end to push ISU back out in front, 54-53, with 8:52 remaining.
K-State led 56-55 until ISU went on an 8-0 run to go up 63-56. Melvin Ejim capped off the run with an emphatic fast-break dunk with 5:21 left. The Wildcats then went on a 6-2 run to cut the ISU lead to 65-62 with 3:24 remaining.
Niang hit a big three, but Spradling answered with his fourth trey of the game to cut the lead back to three points at 68-65 with 1:59 remaining. After a pair of Clyburn free-throws, the Cyclones got a stop on the defensive end, but turned it over to Rodney McGruder who dunked home a basket to cut it to 70-67 with 0:48 seconds left.
Lucious then scored a huge hoop with 0:27 seconds left to make it 72-67 ISU. McGruder missed a one-and-one on KSU’s next possession and Niang converted his final free-throw attempt to end the scoring.
ISU shot 11-of-22 from 3-point range, its ninth game with double-digit 3-pointers made on the season. ISU outboarded KSU, 35-28. Ejim had 10 boards, his 13th double-digit rebounding performance of the season.
The Cyclones travel to Oklahoma State to face the Cowboys Wednesday at 7 p.m. CT.
