AUSTIN, Texas – No. 8 Iowa State’s comeback effort fell just short Saturday afternoon as the Cyclones lost to Texas 86-76 at the Frank Erwin Center. The loss drops Iowa State to 14-3 overall and 2-3 in the Big 12 while the Longhorns improved to 14-4 overall and 3-2 in the Big 12.
For the second game in a row, Iowa State started the second half tied 36-36 with its opponent, today the Texas Longhorns. Georges Niang restored ISU’s lead to 44-43 after a 3-pointer before the game went three minutes without either team adding to the scoreboard. Texas broke the seal and went on an 8-0 run with Jonathan Holmes scoring six of those to give Texas its largest lead of the game at 51-44.
Iowa State re-built immediately with a 7-2 run, five points coming from Naz Long to get the game back to 53-51 in favor of Texas. The Longhorns, who had already gotten the majority of ISU’s post players in foul trouble, went back to the source as they let their big man Cameron Ridley score a lay-in, block a shot and then throw down a dunk on the break to put Texas back up 57-51.
Texas continued to pull away, racking up a 12-3 run after ISU got the lead down to five to produce its largest lead of the game at 75-61 with five minutes left. Iowa State stormed back with a 13-3 run to reduce the lead to four points with a minute left, but the Cyclones would not be able to get any closer.
Coming off one of the poorest shooting performances of his Iowa State career against Kansas on Monday, Georges Niang put up one of his best perimeter shooting games in defeat. He finished with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including tying a career-high with four 3-pointers, six rebounds and five assists.
