MILWAUKEE – Behind a homecoming game for sophomore forward Milan Momcilovic, a dominant day in the paint and a high-intensity defensive showing, No. 3 seed Iowa State advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament with an 82-55 win over No. 14 seed Lipscomb.

“Those guys are a tremendous team,” Iowa State head coach T.J. Otzelberger said about Lipscomb. “I felt like, defensively, we kept our focus through the full 40 minutes.”

Momcilovic shows out in his hometown

The Pewaukee, Wisconsin, native Momcilovic was on rails in his return trip home. Though he missed his first shot of the game, a 3-pointer, he nearly couldn’t the rest of the way.

His first 3-pointer fell five minutes into the game, assisted by sophomore guard Cade Kelderman, who had a strong day of his own with a career-high five points, three steals and three assists in 18 minutes played. 

Though Lipscomb showed a fight after the first media timeout and took a 16-15 lead, that was when Momcilovic took over.

“We knew they could score in bunches, the way they shoot the basketball,” Otzelberger said.

Momcilovic contributed 12 points that were part of a 14-0 Cyclone run that spanned nearly five minutes. Two 3-pointers, two shots in the paint and a tough jumper brought the Iowa State lead up to a comfortable margin.

“Milan, truthfully, he just took over the game,” Otzelberger said. “You could see his confidence going once he saw it go through the basket, and then credit to his teammates for doing an unbelievable job of finding him.”

When Momcilovic was inside, he scored in many different ways. He backed his man down, he got around the defense for tough, athletic layups and he even got one to fall on his Larry Bird-like fadeaway jumper.

“That was awesome to watch,” senior guard Nate Heise said. “A lot of times he was posting up, I was just watching him, and then I was like ‘you’re going to have to send a double if you want to stop him.’”

His monster 17-point first half on 7-of-9 shooting, 3-of-4 outside, helped Iowa State build a 16-point halftime lead. All of his 3’s in the first half were assisted.

“He was cooking,” junior guard Tamin Lipsey said.

His second half wasn’t as strong, but he still made yet another 3-pointer and finished with a team-high 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting and was 4-of-8 from deep. As a team, the Cyclones were 7-of-19 outside (37%) and were 58% from the field.

Points in the paint feed the Cyclones

With Momcilovic as the go-to guy from downtown, the rest of the Cyclones made their pay inside.

“Coach [Otzelberger] put an emphasis on that in the scouting report,” senior center Dishon Jackson said. “We knew we had some advantages in there, and took full advantage.”

A layup from Lipsey started the game, and he followed that with another quick bucket inside. The next two baskets were also scored in the paint, and Iowa State proved its dominance down low.

26 of Iowa State’s 40 first-half points were scored in the paint, and many players played a part in that.

Primarily, it was the bigs, Jackson and junior forward Joshua Jefferson, but Lipsey, Momcilovic and senior guard Curtis Jones all fought their way inside for some tough buckets.

“We knew we wanted to get in the paint and just be aggressive in there,” Lipsey said. “Those are high percentage shots and it showed out there.”

It helped the Cyclones that Lipscomb ran with a smaller lineup, with four starters standing 6 feet 3 inches or less. That allowed Iowa State to control the game inside, both on offense and defense.

The second half was no different, as a 9-0 run, over a 1:45 span, with under 13 minutes to go, came via six points in the paint, some off turnovers. 

Iowa State continued to dominate the paint and scored 24 points there in the second half, but it was the guard play that made a solid chunk of that happen. Lipsey and Jones contributed the paint points in the run.

It’s that type of versatility among the team that gives the Cyclones confidence in themselves.

“We can do a little bit of everything,” Lipsey said. “We have guards that are so versatile, our bigs are versatile. We’re a hard team to guard.”

Iowa State’s defense holds true

Throughout the game, Lipscomb struggled to find points and cut into Iowa State’s lead. A large part of that was the sheer size advantage the Cyclones had.

It made driving to the paint nearly impossible for the Bisons, as they only had 20 points in the paint. Because of that, 3-point shooting became a focal point early for Lipscomb.

A mini 8-4 run near the midway point of the first half was all the Bisons could muster in hopes of staying competitive. Once Lipscomb took a 16-15 lead eight minutes into the game, Iowa State turned its defense up a couple of notches.

The Bisons fell into the first of a few droughts, and a 14-0 Iowa State run put the Cyclones in front for good.

One of the things Lipscomb was stellar at this season was its ability to control the ball and not turn it over. However, the Iowa State defense forced quite a few on a Bisons offense that looked frazzled at many parts of the game.

It was just business as usual for the Cyclones, though.

“Same thing as normal, ball pressure, speeding them up, making them do things they’re not comfortable doing, just taking away everything that they normally do,” Jackson said.

Jefferson added that communication was key in the win, especially when getting up and guarding the ball.

When the ball pressure came and Iowa State communicated, Lipscomb committed 17 turnovers, just shy of its season high, that being 19. Off of those turnovers, the Cyclones converted 23 points, many of which were scored in the paint.

Much like many games this season, when Iowa State can control the tempo, force turnovers and be the more physical team inside, it wins games.