MILWAUKEE – At the hands of No. 6 seed Ole Miss, the season ended for No. 3 seed Iowa State in a 91-78 contest Sunday. The Cyclones finished the season with a 25-10 record.

“It wasn’t our best, but our guys didn’t stop fighting and I’m proud of them for that,” Iowa State head coach T.J. Otzelberger said.

The Rebels’ offense was lights-out all night long, and it began after the first five minutes. Everything Iowa State’s defense threw at them wasn’t enough.

The Cyclones got out to a 13-5 lead with 15:18 to go in the first half thanks to a 9-0 run. However, Ole Miss drained a 3-pointer soon after and its offense ignited.

Over the span of six minutes, nearly everything the Rebels threw up went in. It didn’t matter if it was inside or outside, odds were it was going to fall. A 17-2 run followed after Cyclone junior forward Joshua Jefferson, who finished with 16 points and a team-high eight rebounds, put Ole Miss up 28-17.

“It just seemed like it wasn’t our day,” senior guard Curtis Jones said. “It was their day. They made a lot of 3’s, some tougher shots that got them back in the game early.”

Jones led the way on offense for Iowa State with 26 points in his final game as a Cyclone.

Once that gap was made, there was no stopping the Rebels. The 19-point swing in that time saw Iowa State miss 14 of its 16 shots from its 9-0 run through the end of Ole Miss’ 17-2 run.

When the Cyclones did have open looks to stop the bleeding, they couldn’t connect, and that changed everything. As the shots didn’t fall, it messed with the team mentally.

“It’s easy to say it doesn’t affect us, but when we play good defense for 25 seconds and then they hit a tough 3, it is deflating,” sophomore guard Milan Momcilovic said. “It is deflating when they’re hitting tough shots and we’re not. I couldn’t hit anything.”

It was a completely different game for Momcilovic compared to Friday’s win. Momcilovic was 2-for-12 from the floor and 1-for-8 from 3 against the Rebels.

Ole Miss maintained that 11-point lead into the half, where it led 40-29.

The start of the second half wasn’t kind to Iowa State either. The lead for the Rebels grew to 17 points with 16 minutes to go, then reached 21 points not even two minutes later.

The biggest lead for Ole Miss came after a 3-pointer that put the Rebels up 78-52 with 5:40 to go.

A lot of the Rebels’ shots, especially in the first half, fell towards the end of the shot clock, which deflated the Iowa State defense.

“They did a great job making the shots that they needed to make,” Otzelberger said.

With the shots falling no matter how the Cyclones defended, the Rebels shot 58% from both the field and from beyond the arc. That 3-point percentage was the highest for Ole Miss since the 2018-19 season.

“They just made more shots,” senior center Dishon Jackson said. “It wasn’t no secret formula, they just made some tougher shots and had some guys who just popped off.”

When teams hit like that, there isn’t much that can happen in terms of making a comeback. That held true when compared to Iowa State’s offense. Though it shot 48% from the floor and 36% from outside, the late stages of the second half were when Iowa State’s offense woke up.

20 of Iowa State’s points came in the final five minutes. At that point, the game was already in hand for Ole Miss.

“We didn’t do enough offensively,” junior guard Tamin Lipsey said.

With the season now over, the Cyclones will look towards the next, where they will return Jefferson, Lipsey and senior guard Nate Heise among others. 

“Proud of the group,” Lipsey said. “A lot of fun throughout the season, connections made with a lot of guys, relationships that will last forever.”

But the road ends here for a handful of players, including Jones and senior forward Brandton Chatfield.

“I really became a man here,” Jones said. “I’m just grateful to all of my teammates, all my coaches and everybody who supported us.”

“I’ve loved every minute of being here,” Chatfield said.