AMES- A Hilton Coliseum welcome letter to Houston came down to the final minutes, with Iowa State sending the Cougars back home with their first loss of the season in a thrilling 57-53 game.
A once electric atmosphere at Hilton, suddenly became tense.
With less than 40 seconds left to play in what had become a tight game, knotted up at 53 points apiece, the Cyclones needed someone to step up.
As precious seconds dripped off the game clock, Keshon Gilbert kicked it to true freshman Milan Momcilovic, who took a dribble, spun to his right on a fadeaway jumper which found its way into the net.
Going into the shot, Momcilovic put all the doubt in the back of his head and trusted the countless times he had practiced a shot that has done him well this season.
“It’s a shot I work on every day so I am comfortable with it,” Momcilovic said.
Momcilovic was then fouled after a missed jumper from Houston, and his pair of made free throws all but sealed Iowa State’s league-shaking upset.
The dramatic final shot by the Cyclones, however, was initially supposed to end up in the hands of Tamin Lipsey. But when with the paint clogged up, Iowa State had to look elsewhere.
Luckily for them, not only has Momcilovic proven his ability to make fadeaways, but with how Houston was guarding him, he was set up for a big-time shot.
“We were fortunate coming out that [Momcilovic] had a smaller guy on him, that is kind of his spot on that left wing,” Otzelberger said. “We wanted to get either [Lipsey] going to the rim or we wanted to get [Momcilovic] in position there for that shot that he is confident in.”
While Momcilovic will be remembered as the hero of the game, he was far from earning that title throughout the game, especially in the second half.
Up until that shot, Momcilovic had seven points in the game, and had not made a shot since the final two minutes of the first half. He had missed his prior two attempts in the second half, and it looked like his opportunity as a scoring option for the game was out of the question.
“They were just staring closer at me at the 3-point line so not letting me get any clean looks,” Momcilovic said.
The Cyclones also did not have the momentum in their favor, as Houston had been on an offensive tear going into the final minutes. Up until that point, the Cougars had outscored the Cyclones 32-22 in the second half and had erased the 10-point lead Iowa State had going into halftime.
The fire Iowa State had to start the game had faded away.
“Certainly there was points in the game where it almost felt like we were hanging on, but I think our guys were able to dig deep,” Otzelberger said.
Outside of another near second-half collapse, the complimentary pair of slippery offense and aggressive defense in the first half was exactly the gameplan Iowa State had drawn up.
With an added willingness to defend their home court, the Cyclones are eager to carry their early game presence with them in conference play, especially against more top-tier opponents.
“We want to be the team throwing the first punches,” Lipsey said. “We came out to a large lead, I don’t think they were expecting that, and that helped us to grow momentum throughout the whole game.”
Regardless of their lapse in continuing their first-half efforts, the Cyclones still walked out with their first top-25 win of the season and first victory in Big 12 play.
Iowa State remains undefeated at home, with their 10th win at Hilton this season holding a little more weight than those before.
“Nobody’s going to come in here and push us around,” Otzelberger said. “Not real happy about being the underdog, not that we follow any of that sort of thing, but nobody is going to call us an underdog at Hilton Coliseum.”
