AMES — No. 7 Iowa State cruised to a 82-56 win over Kansas City backed by strong performances from guard Curtis Jones and forward Milan Momcilovic.
In last week’s victory over Mississippi Valley State, Jones was in the starting lineup while Momcilovic came off of the bench.
The roles were reversed on Monday night, as it was Momcilovic who found himself starting, while Jones came off of the bench.
“Honestly, we’re just trying to get everybody to play to their strengths and best of their abilities,” head coach T.J. Otzelberger said.
The switch seemed to work for both players.
“Obviously everyone likes to be starting, but we have so many guys on this team that, you know if Curt [Jones] starts for me one night, or whoever starts, it doesn’t really matter,” Momcilovic said.
Coming off the bench, Jones led Iowa State in scoring with 20 points, his second-highest regular season scoring output as a Cyclone.
Jones shot just 39% from the field in the 2023-24 season but was very efficient shooting the ball Monday.
Jones went 7-for-11 from the field, 3-for-5 from 3-point range and 3-for-3 from the free throw line coming off of the bench.
“It’s extremely important to have that spark and [Jones] was an electric force tonight,” Otzelberger said. “It really helps offensively to have somebody that can come in and do that.”
It wasn’t just his scoring ability that was on display. Jones also had five rebounds and five assists. Three of those assists led to baskets by Momcilovic.
“We play very well off of each other,” Momcilovic said. “[Jones] always finds me. I love playing with [Jones], obviously, we both played really good today.”
Speaking of Momcilovic, coming into the season, Otzelberger and his staff wanted him to be more aggressive offensively and that aggression was on display against Kansas City.
Momcilovic was on target early from 3-point range, hitting his first four attempts of the game.
“Last game I got my threes up but I missed a couple of wide-open threes that I usually hit,” Momcilovic said. “Came out tonight with an aggressive mindset, keep shooting threes, get downhill, be aggressive and good things will happen.”
“I liked his urgency right away, you could see he was getting his feet set, he was hunting,” Otzelberger said. “From my vantage point, the more he can hunt, the better we’ll be.”
Momcilovic finished second on the team in scoring with 16 points on 6-for-10 shooting from the field and 4-for-7 from 3-point range.
“We’re going to continue to encourage him to have that same level of aggressiveness and hunting opportunities,” Otzelberger said.
Jones and Momcilovic played huge roles in putting the game on ice for Iowa State in the second half.
The pair scored 20 straight points for the Cyclones in a five-minute span in the second half, increasing the Iowa State lead from 18 to 29 in the process.
Their performance was much needed, considering the rest of the team shot just 40% from the field and 23% from 3-point range.
“They both played great,” Otzelberger said.
