No. 3 Iowa State finished its weekend in the Grand Canyon State with a matchup against Arizona in an effort to leave with two key wins after defeating Arizona State on Saturday.
Despite a back-and-forth battle, a half-court heave by Wildcat guard Caleb Love sent the game into overtime and followed it up with eight points in the extra period to give Arizona an 86-75 win over Iowa State Monday night.
With the loss, the Cyclones drop to a 17-3 overall record and are 7-2 in the Big 12 conference, as Iowa State has now dropped both of its conference games on the road, each in front of a packed house.
Love bites the Cyclones late
Despite coming into Monday night’s matchup as the Wildcats leading scorer, the North Carolina transfer got off to a rough start against a stout Cyclones defense by going 6-for-19 from the field, 2-for-11 from 3-point range.
However, Love had come into the game shooting below 40% from the field and just over 30% from deep, so it was hit or miss whether he would come out shooting hot or cold. He got the cold heart through the majority of regulation, with the last two seconds being his coming out moment.
Following a made free throw by Iowa State forward Joshua Jefferson, Arizona was forced to try and tie the game with just over two seconds to go in regulation and had no timeouts to call. The Wildcats put the ball in the hands of their leader and he cashed in on a half-court shot to send the game into overtime tied up at 71 apiece.
From there, Love helped lead Arizona to an explosive extra period, scoring eight points on 2-of-3 field goal shooting, 2-of-2 from 3-point land and two made free throws.
The one shot that Love missed was the only missed shot that the Wildcats had in overtime, as the Cyclones could not find a way to get anything going, ultimately leading to their demise.
Lipsey catches fire to carry first-half offense
After going three-straight conference games without reaching the double-digit mark in points, junior guard Tamin Lipsey got off to a hot start with 14 points in the first half to lead the Cyclones.
Lipsey’s hot start was the main highlight of the Cyclones’ first-half offense, as they had reached a long dry spell from the field that lasted nearly 11 minutes long.
After a layup from senior guard Keshon Gilbert at 17:04 in the first half, Iowa State struggled to find a shooting touch, as they would go a combined 3-for-17 until 6:24, where the Cyclones would go on a 6-0 run.
From that scoring scarcity, Lipsey scored two of the three made baskets in the run. He was the only Iowa State player who could find some semblance of hope when it came to getting in a shooting stride.
Lipsey finished the first half converting five of his eight attempted shots, with three of his made buckets coming from 3-point range on six attempts.
The three 3-pointers from Lipsey tied a season-high for the Ames native, with the last time he had converted on three 3’s came in Iowa City in the Cyclones’ Cy-Hawk win.
Despite Lipsey only being able to score four remaining points throughout the rest of the game, he was the main factor in keeping Iowa State in a chess match with a tenacious Arizona team.
Jones’ hot streak fizzles out
One of the biggest surprises that came out of Monday night’s loss to the Wildcats came from the shooting performance of senior guard Curtis Jones.
In 41 minutes of playing time, Jones had only managed to score eight points on 1-of-11 shooting from the field and failed to convert on any of his eight 3-point attempts. Jones also made six free throws on eight attempts.
Jones’ only made field goal came on a goaltending call on one of his patented floaters in the late stages of the second half, as the superstar guard went ice-cold for the first time in Big 12 conference play this season.
With his single-digit performance, Jones ended a nine-game streak of scoring double-digit points. The last time he had missed on that mark was in the Cyclones’ win over Omaha on Dec. 4, where he only managed nine points while missing all of his five shots from deep.
