Following their road trip in Utah, the No. 4 Cyclones are coming back to Hilton Coliseum to face No. 16 Texas Tech at 3 p.m. Saturday.
Throughout its journey in the state of Utah, Iowa State first faced a setback, suffering a 79-69 loss to BYU. However, just three days later, the Cyclones rebounded strongly, dominating Utah with a 75-59 victory, which was highlighted by junior forward Milan Momcilovic’s historic performance.
“We don’t get too high or too low,” senior forward Joshua Jefferson said. “Whenever we lose, we don’t point fingers or blame each other… we spend a lot of time together off the floor, so it makes things easier when things go well for us. We know how to handle it. When things go bad, we can handle it pretty well.”
Momcilovic led Iowa State to grab its fifth road win of the season, after he wrote his name in the record book as he set the new single-season 3-point record. With 103, he surpassed former Cyclone and Hall of Famer Dedric Willoughby’s record of 102 set in 1997.
Similar to the Cyclones, Texas Tech will head to Ames with an 80-68 victory over Cincinnati under its belt. The win was led by sophomore guard Christian Anderson, who recorded his eighth double-double of the season with 31 points and a career high of 11 rebounds.
“Their speed is real,” head coach T.J. Otzelberger said. “Anderson is dynamic as any lead guard is in the country in terms of playmaking, decision making, scoring and shooting it. Then the minutes he plays and the effect he has on the game is tremendous.”
With a team heightened by strong contributions throughout the team, redshirt junior forward LeJuan Watts secured 13 points and five rebounds and freshman guard Jaylen Petty secured nine points and seven rebounds.
Sophomore forward Josiah Moseley led the bench with six points and four rebounds and sophomore forward Luke Bamgboye had six points, three blocks and two rebounds. All of these contributed to the Red Raiders shooting 51.9% from the field and 40% from deep.
“They’ve just got so many offensive weapons, they’ve got so much confidence in their ability to score the basketball,” Otzelberger said. “So anytime you have the volume of threes that they shoot and make them at the percentage that they do, that’s going to spread the court, that’s going to give them opportunities to open up some driving lanes.”
Overall, Texas Tech averages 73.3 points per game, shooting 45% from the field and 34% from deep.
The Red Raiders will once again play without All-American junior forward JT Toppin, who sustained a season-ending ACL tear in his right knee during Texas Tech’s 72-67 loss against Arizona State. The 6-foot-9 junior averages 21.8 points per game, finding the most success from the field, shooting 54%.
“They got a lot of really good players, obviously losing that guy has a big impact, but they are still a really good team, good-coached team,” redshirt senior guard Nate Heise said. “It’s really just do what we did when we last played at home, feed off the crowd’s energy, pressure the ball, create turnovers.”
Iowa State will play Texas Tech at 3 p.m. Saturday on its home court. The game will be broadcast on CBS.
