What started out as a sloppy display of basketball quickly turned into an up-tempo offensive clinic as the Cyclones routed Virginia Tech to advance to the championship round of the Emerald Coast Classic.

The first eight minutes of the game was riddled with turnovers and chaotic play, before the Cyclones hit their groove and never looked back.

Iowa State had slowly developed a 23-18 lead with 8:36 left in the first half, before using a 22-4 run that put Iowa State squarely in control of the game. By halftime, Iowa State led 52-30.

Like most runs, Iowa State was aided by hot shooting. The Cyclones hit on 7-of-11 3-pointers in the first half and shot 69 percent from the field as a whole. Iowa State assisted on 10-of-20 field goals in the half.

McKay was the biggest contributor, scoring 15 first-half points, but all seven Cyclones who played had at least 5 points at the break.

Iowa State showed no signs of slowing down in the second half. With 11:50 left in the game, the Cyclones pushed out to a 30-point lead. All five Iowa State starters were already in double figures.

Hallice Cooke would later become the sixth Cyclone to hit double figures in the game.

Virginia Tech showed some signs of life down the stretch, as it was able to cut the lead to 20 points with 8:15 remaining. 

Iowa State didn’t play well for the remainder of the game, but it wouldn’t get much closer than that. Iowa State stayed in control of the game and would go on to pull out a 99-77 win.

McKay led the way with 23 points, followed by Nader’s 16 points. Georges Niang and Monté Morris dropped in 14 points a piece. 

For the game, Iowa State shot 13-of-21 from 3-point range and shot 57.8 percent from the field.

Iowa State will play again tomorrow night in the Emerald Coast Classic championship against the winner of Illinois and UAB.

If UAB beats Illinois, Iowa State will get a much wanted rematch against the team that knocked them out of the NCAA tournament with a first round upset last season.