Courtesy: cyclones.com –
HONOLULU, Hawaii – No. 14 Iowa State tied its best start in school history as the Cyclones improved to 10-0 with a 83-60 win over Akron Monday afternoon at the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic inside the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu. Akron’s record falls to 6-3.
The Cyclones also started 10-0 in the 1996-97 season. Iowa State will play in the championship game of the Diamond Head Classic Wednesday against the winner of the South Carolina-Boise State game that will take place later Monday evening. Game time will be 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night, and will be televised on ESPN2.
The Zips and the Cyclones continued its back-and-forth play in the early minutes of the second half. A Pat Forsythe lay-in reduced Iowa State’s lead to 42-41, but ISU put together a 13-2 run to build up its largest lead of the game, to that point, at 55-43. Georges Niang was the star of the run with five points while DeAndre Kane added four.
Akron was able to break open a tight game about halfway through the first half, breaking off a 13-2 run that was powered by three 3-pointers to give the Zips their largest lead of the half at 23-15. Akron started the game making five of its first 10 3-point attempts.
Iowa State was able to claw its way back into the contest with an 11-2 run in just over two minutes that was capped off by Melvin Ejim’s second 3-pointer of the game to restore ISU’s lead at 26-25. Akron tied it up with a free throw, but Iowa State then went on a 6-0 run give the Cyclones a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the game. Akron looked like it would keep ISU to a one-possession margin headed into the locker room, but Georges Niang nailed a 3-pointer with three seconds left to give the Cyclones a 37-31 halftime lead.
