MILWAUKEE – 14-seed Lipscomb showed potential with some fight early on, but backed by a dominant performance in the paint, three-seed Iowa State cruised to an 82-55 victory.
Coming into Friday afternoon’s first-round game between Iowa State and Lipscomb, all the numbers or metrics pointed to an Iowa State victory. This is expected in a matchup between a No. 3 seed and a No. 14 seed, as No. 3 seeds win their first-round games 85% of the time.
However, one metric that may have flown under the radar was Iowa State’s size advantage, as it held a height advantage over Lipscomb at every single position.
Lipscomb started three players who were 6 feet 3 inches or shorter, while the Cyclones started three players who stood at 6 feet 8 inches or taller.
The Bisons’ size issues didn’t hurt them in the Atlantic Sun, but from the opening tip of the game, it was obvious that they were not well equipped to handle Iowa State’s big bodies, and Iowa State knew that was the case ahead of time.
“The key to the game was dominating the paint coming in,” junior forward Joshua Jefferson said.
“We knew we had a size advantage inside, so we wanted to get into the paint and get easy buckets at the rim,” junior guard Tamin Lipsey said.
The Cyclones’ game plan worked to perfection.
Lipsey, who is coming off an injury that kept him sidelined in the Cyclones’ last game against BYU, opened up the scoring with two layups on hard drives to the basket, which was indicative of how the game would go on to play out.
“I felt like it was a really good sign for our team that you saw him come out attacking the paint and attacking the rim,” Iowa State head coach T.J. Otzelberger said.
Iowa State kept its pedal to the metal all game and went on to score 50 of its 82 points inside of the paint.
The Cyclones shot 68% on 2-pointers and also made 75% of their layup attempts.
“Obviously I was one of those guys that started it off with two layups in the paint and Joshua [Jefferson] was doing a good job, Milan [Momcilovic], obviously, but we knew we had an advantage inside,” Lipsey said.
“We knew we had some advantages in there, so we went in and took full advantage,” senior center Dishon Jackson said.
This mindset was important for the Cyclones to have. When a team holds a size and talent advantage, taking a lot of lower-percentage jump shots can backfire if they aren’t falling, which gives the underdog a greater chance of staying in the game.
When a team imposes its will in the paint like Iowa State did, it becomes very hard for the other team to find answers.
“Not settling is super important, because you never know if you’re gonna have a good shooting day or bad shooting day,” Lipsey said. “But, if you’re getting shots inside the paint, most of the time they’re always good looks for your team and shooting more of a high percentage from the inside.”
“When we have a big advantage, we have to take advantage of it,” Jackson said.
The Cyclones’ size and physicality helped them on the defensive side as well.
Iowa State’s interior defense was nearly impenetrable. 28 of Lipscomb’s 51 shot attempts were from behind the 3-point line and it scored just 20 out of its 55 points from inside the paint. The Bisons were not able to get anything going on the inside. On top of that, Iowa State also won the rebounding battle 35-23.
“I think that’s definitely our best [defensive] game in a while,” Jefferson said. “We held them under 60 points, even when our bench guys got in, they were still guarding pretty well.”
It’s safe to say that Iowa State won’t have that type of size advantage as it continues in the tournament, but it can still hang its hat on its physicality that has been emphasized all season long.
“The physical part comes with driving the ball with force, sealing, getting on the offensive glass,” Otzelberger said. “Those were the areas of emphasis we knew we would have to be at our best today and really compete. I felt like our guys kept the focus on those areas for the full 40 minutes.”
