No. 11 Iowa State earned its first Big 12 Conference win in 680 days Wednesday, fending off No. 25 Texas Tech to earn a 51-47 home victory.
Because of injuries and COVID concerns, the Red Raiders suited up just seven players against the Cyclones but still found a way to throw a major scare into the home team before Iowa State scratched out its long-anticipated Big 12 victory.
The Cyclones (13-1, 1-1 Big 12) snapped a 24-game losing streak in league play in a game when they scored only 21 second-half points. The skid dated back to Feb. 25, 2020.
Iowa State guard Izaiah Brockington’s four-point play with 1:52 left in the game put the Cyclones back in front. The Red Raiders (10-3, 0-1) had just grabbed their first lead of the night on Marcus Santos-Silva’s fastbreak layup off an Iowa State turnover with 2:18 to go.
That was the final burst for the Red Raiders as they methodically erased a 30-19 halftime lead by leaning on suffocating defense.
The Cyclones missed their first 10 field-goal attempts after halftime and didn’t score in the initial 7:23 of the second period until Caleb Grill hit a pair of free throws. Gabe Kalscheur connected on Iowa State’s first floor shot of the second half on a reverse layup at the 10:21 juncture. That was one of just three made shots for the Cyclones the entire second half, but Texas Tech wasn’t much better (10 of 26) and struggled more from the free-throw line, hitting 6-of-15 foul shots overall.
Still, when Davion Warren scored on a give-and-go layup with 2:55 left in the game, the score was deadlocked 40-40 to set the stage for the finish when the Cyclones finally found some semblance of offensive rhythm by outscoring the Red Raiders 11-7 down the stretch.
Brockington led Iowa State with 14 points and Aljaz Kunc added 13. Both connected on two free throws in the final 26 seconds to help ice the win.
Warren led Texas Tech with 12 points and Bryson Williams added 10. Kevin Obanor grabbed 10 rebounds.
–Field Level Media
