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Iowa State Cyclones Take a Loss but Win a Record for #11 Monte Morris

Monte Morris

Still within the top 25 in the NCAA BPI Rankings, the Iowa State Cyclones took a loss to Vanderbilt in Saturday’s game away at Vanderbilt Memorial Stadium. Playing against a team with a BPI ranking at 65 to Iowa’s #24 position (and holding), the final score was a bit frustrating when they boast a position more than 40 places higher in overall college rankings to date this season. However, even with a loss for the team, Monte Morris (#11) scored big, ousting Jeff Hornacek as the school’s all-time leader in assists. Hornacek’s record was broken on Saturday, January 28 in the second half against Vanderbilt.

Record Setting Moments Highlight Game against Vanderbilt

The team lost Saturday night with a final score of 84 – 78 against the team that is ranked 41 places behind the Cyclones in the current national rankings. Finishing Saturday’s game with a career high 25 points, the win was bigger than surpassing Hornacek’s record assists. Late in the 2nd half, Morris hit that record setting 666th assist when he found Matt Thomas for a three point shot that whittled the score back down from 75 – 68 with only three minutes in the game remaining.

This brought Morris to a 10 of 17 shots taken and that record setting 25 point score and the historic 666 assists for a school record. That number will always remain the ‘Mark of the Beast’ for Hornacek as that is the evil number that broke his longstanding record in school assists. As the now head coach of the New York Knicks, he is demoted to second place in school records.

In the Big Picture

Anyone looking to follow the team through the remaining games this season as the Cyclones continue to vie for holding their standings within the NCAA top 25 BPI rankings should check out ticketoffices.com soon. While being 24th may not sound like such a big deal, considering that they are #24 from a list that is 351 schools long, that is quite an accomplishment for this Iowa collegiate team.

With only 23 teams above them and less than a dozen games left in the regular season, it will be interesting to see if they can climb a bit on the rankings. Again, the #24 spot may not seem like a biggie to the average person, but when following the NCAA teams, and more importantly the Big 12, it’s a major accomplishment for this Midwestern team.

So then, although the Cyclones didn’t storm the stands in Saturday’s loss to Vanderbilt, they are storming the NCAA list of the top 25 and now all eyes will be on Morris to see how high he can climb in assists. The higher his numbers go, the harder it will be to beat him going forward and the longer it will take to do so. It took 31 years to beat Hornacek’s Cyclone assists record so the more assists this senior notches his belt with, the longer it may take to break that record he now holds. A loss for the Cyclones, but a whirlwind of victory for #11, Monte Morris.

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