AMES — No. 7 Iowa State looks to stay undefeated at home as the Cyclones take on Baylor and its big three Saturday after a well-deserved bye week.
Now marking the two teams’ second matchup this season, the Cyclones are looking to take on Baylor with a current three-game win streak under their belts. Iowa State’s most recent win against the Bears was in January, when the team handed Baylor a 70-60 loss on its home court.
The leading scorers in the January matchup were senior guard Tamin Lipsey, who secured 24 points and senior forward Joshua Jefferson, who was close behind with 19.
“We’re going to have ups and downs and bumps in the road, but how we’re playing right now is we’re on such a high,” Lipsey said. “We’re just trying to ride that and continue to stay confident and feed off of each other.”
With Lipsey being a consistent scorer for the Cyclones and averaging 13.4 points this season, one player has shown his true colors on the court: redshirt senior Nate Heise.
Heise, although a quiet shooter and a strong defensive player, has his achievements and success points not always portrayed on the stat sheet. However, he has become a strong reliance for the Cyclones in the past few games.
“I want him [Heise] to feel far more like the oxygen our team needs to breathe,” head coach T.J. Otzelberger said. “Then it’s an extra benefit, it’s something we have to have, it’s necessary, it has to show up every possession. So I love him, I love everything about Nate [Heise].”
In Iowa State’s most recent 95-61 win over Kansas State, Heise secured 11 points, five rebounds and a team-high five assists. Before that, in the Cyclones’ 97-67 win, Heise put up eight points, four assists and four rebounds.
“It’s always good to hear your coach say score the ball, shoot, shoot, shoot,” Heise said. “That’s what he’s been saying in the last couple of weeks and I think that’s just beneficial to me and just knowing we need that as a team in order to be successful.”
However, Iowa State is not the only team coming off a conference play win, as Baylor hit its first back-to-back wins in conference play with a 63-53 win over West Virginia and the most recent 86-67 victory against Colorado.
The Bears are currently led by their trio of fifth-year guard Obi Agbim, who secured a season best of 19 points against Colorado, redshirt sophomore guard Cameron Carr, who also put up 19 points against Colorado and has a season best of 28 points against UTRGV.
The third player in the Bears’ big three is freshman guard Tounde Yessoufou, who put up 27 points against Colorado, one point off his career best of 28.
“I think they [Baylor] have a better idea of who they are and how they’re going to win games,” Otzelberger said. “They are shooting the ball with really good confidence from the 3-point line, multiple guys are doing that, so I just think they’re a team with great versatility.”
Against the Cyclones earlier this season, Carr put up a team-high of 17 points and five rebounds, with Yessoufou close behind with 10 points of his own.
Iowa State looks to continue its undefeated slate at home as the Cyclones take on Baylor at 1 p.m. Saturday. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.
