The No. 16 Cyclones grab their first exhibition win, 80-72 over Northwestern on Sunday, after facing major improvements in practice.
Heise dominates the court
With his second year wearing a cardinal red and yellow jersey, redshirt senior guard Nate Heise finished the 2024-25 season starting in seven games and averaging 5.1 points, 3.2 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1.0 assists. However, Hilton Coliseum saw someone new on the court playing against Northwestern.
“He’s had a tremendous fall in practice and that Nate Heise right there is the guy that we know that he is,” Iowa State Head Coach T.J. Otzelberger said. “We challenge him and demand that’s who he is every night out because he impacted the game significantly on both ends of the court in our favor to win the game.”
As a starter, Heise scored the first 3 Hilton fans have seen from the Cyclones after going 0-14 from behind the 3-point mark during the 71-58 exhibition loss against Creighton. At the 12:29 mark within the first half, Heise hit the first 3 of the game to boost the Cyclones to a closer score margin of 16-15.
“They all feel good when you shoot with confidence,” Heise said. “That’s something that I’ve been doing all summer and fall. So when you’re not hesitating, I think you shouldn’t feel really good and then they’re all going to go in. So it felt great.”
Seen everywhere on court during his 31:47 minutes of play, the fans inside Hilton also saw Heise in the stands. After a defensive rebound gone wild, due to a missed layup by sophomore guard Angelo Ciaravino, Heise dove into the chairs along the court sidelines to save the ball from going out of bounds.
The save led to back-to-back passes by senior guard Dominick Nelson and freshman guard Killyan Toure down the court before Nelson dunked the ball, bringing Iowa State to a three-point lead.
Heise continued his momentum within the first half with his second successful 3-pointer, bringing the team to a 24-16 lead, complementing the Cyclones’ highest scoring run of 12. Heise assisted Toure with his 3-point shot to even the score 33-33.
Spending some time on the bench within the second half, after obtaining two personal fouls and needing a breather. Heise was substituted back in, and within twenty seconds, back on the court, he had another successful 3-point jump shot off an opponent turnover, boosting the team’s lead to 49-46.
“Me and coaches talk about playing with confidence, playing aggressive and hunting shots,” Heise said. “So when you’re doing that, I think everything goes well.”
Heise bolstered his dominance through the second half, growing his momentum from behind the 3-point mark, ending the game with a team high of 19 points and went 7-for-10 from the field.
Shooting improvement from deep
After the exhibition match against Creighton, the Cyclones experienced uncharacteristically failing from behind the 3-point mark. As in the prior season, Iowa State has a 35% completion rate from deep. Specifically, with a spotlight on junior forward Milan Momcilovic, who shot 39.6% from deep last season.
Coming into the game, after having not made 3-pointers, the crowd at Hilton went wild as Heise scored the first three of the game.
The cheers only continued, as five Cyclones found success from behind the 3-point mark.
“We all complement each other, so it was pretty easy for us to get in the flow,” Nelson said. “I mean, we have the shooters, we have the people that could drive and put pressure on the room. So it just makes it easy for everybody.”
Heise found the most success from deep as he made five out of his seven attempted shots, whereas senior forward Joshua Jefferson went 1-for-2, Momcilovic went 1-for-7, Toure completed 1-for-3 and Nelson went 1-for-2 from deep.
“You got guys like Toure and Nelson at the rim. You got guys like Heise and Milan [Momcilovic] hunting 3s, that’s the best version of ourselves,” Otzelberger said.
Overall, the Cyclones made 40.9% of their shots, a large improvement from their previous standing of 0-14 from deep against Creighton, alongside shooting 50% from the field.
Toure makes his skill known
From France, Toure brought his skills across the country for all of Iowa State to see. Right away after getting the Cyclones cemented on the board, with a dunk made on the fast break and off an opponent turnover. Toure’s momentum only kept building throughout his time on the court.
“With [Toure], what we saw today is what we’ve seen every single day,” Otzelberger said. “A guy who he is going to score when it’s his time, he’s going to get to the basket, make plays. He got that dunk early, which is huge.”
Within his scrappy nature and complete dominance on the court, Toure put together 11 points, going 2-for-2 from the charity stripe and 4-for-8 from the field.
Complementing his offense, the 6-foot-3 guard also found success on the other side of the ball throughout his 29:03 minutes of play, as he completed three steals.
“He showed great poise out there running a team for 29 minutes, and it’s a team that’s pressuring, has a positive assist-to-turnover ratio and just brings a mentality to our team,” Otzelberger said. “So I’ve really been impressed with [Toure], he’s been somebody that stood out all through practice.”
With his quick thinking and fast ball movements, Toure had a team high of five assists, alongside finding the most success with offensive rebounds. He grabbed three, contributing to his overall total of six rebounds.
