AMES — What seemed like a comfortable 12-point lead for Iowa State going into the second half quickly became irrelevant, as its duel with Kansas State quickly turned into a defensive dogfight.
While the Cyclones were the ones that ended the game with a pair of knockout threes from Curtis Jones and Milan Momcilovic to escape with a 78-67 victory, most of the second half saw the Cyclones struggling from the floor.
After swinging the momentum in their favor toward the end of the first half, the Cyclones’ defensive presence did not open up the same way in the second half. The Wildcats found gaps around the arc, to the tune of a 4-for-4 start, and erased the Cyclones’ lead.
Kansas State came out as the aggressor on both sides of the court, and Iowa State had to respond.
The Cyclones could not match Kansas State’s hot shooting from the floor, so they had to find other ways to score, which they found by using the Wildcats’ physicality against them.
“Every game in the Big 12 is going to be intense. We have been preparing for that since June,” Jones said. “It wasn’t unexpected. I just feel like we have been preparing for this moment and we talked about in the huddles everything we did to get to that moment.”
Following the Wildcats’ resurgence that had themselves in prime position to take a sizable lead, the Cyclones began to will themselves into the paint more to get shots up and draw fouls.
Multiple stoppages of play came during the midway point of the second half, which forced Iowa State to switch its defensive structure just as much as its offensive game plan.
“We had to adjust a little bit, because they started calling ticky-tack fouls, which in the Big 12 we did not think those were fouls, but we had to adjust a bit,” Momcilovic said.
The Cyclones’ adjustments would end up working, as they forced stops on defense followed by the right amount of aggressiveness to get inside and get extra shots at the line. Keshon Gilbert became the maestro in drawing fouls and locking up Kansas State ball handlers for Iowa State in the second half.
“There was certainly nobody that made more toughness, gritty plays in that game than [Gilbert],” Iowa State head coach T.J. Otzelberger said.
Gilbert drew six fouls in the second half alone and was responsible for six of the Cyclones’ 19 makes from the line in the second half. Outside of getting himself to the line, Gilbert also raced for any ball that came off the glass and tallied seven of his 13 rebounds in the second half.
“I’m probably more proud of [Gilbert] tonight than any of the performances, because this one he had to do it in a face of a lot of adversity and a lot of challenges and a lot of things that did not go our way or go his way,” Otzelberger said. “He is a heck of a competitor, and that showed up for us tonight.”
Iowa State finished the game scoring 17 of its final 25 points at the free throw line, which combined with its improved efforts defensively, swung the momentum back in its favor enough to remain undefeated at Hilton.
