Recap: MOC BLOCKED! Cyclones Outscore Chattanooga

It was well known coming into Monday night's game against Chattanooga that the Cyclones couldn't overlook the upset-minded Mocs. They've proven they can beat Power 5 competition, and a win over the #4 team in the nation would only make their resume sexier.

Fortunately, a strong first half provided the boost the Cyclones needed to beat Chattanooga by a score of 83-63.

Iowa State had yet another slow start, in which they had to wait for Georges Niang to, again, get the first two points of the game a little less than two minutes into the game. Once Iowa State was able to score, Chattanooga had a hard time stopping ISU.

After giving up an old school three point play, the Cyclones went on an 18-2 run, forcing Chattanooga's new coach Matt McCall to call his first timeout at 13:03 at a score of 20-9.

The timeout slowed Iowa State down a bit, as the Cyclones were only able to put up 2 points the next 3 minutes while watching the Mocs go on a quick 6-0 run, but Matt Thomas' second three followed by a Monte Morris jumper put the Clones back in charge. After a Justin Tuoyo dunk for Chattanooga, ISU was up 27-19 with 7:48 remaining heading into a media timeout.

Both teams were throwing punches back and forth the rest of the half until Iowa State called two timeouts in a 20 second time span, a rarity for Steve Prohm's team.

Entering halftime, the Cyclones were up 44-29. Nazareth Mitrou-Long led all Cyclone scorers with 13 points, while Georges followed behind with 8 points, all of which coming within the first 5 minutes. One of the more surprising stats of the half was Iowa State going 8-17 from deep, while Chattanooga went 0-7. ISU was able to force 10 turnovers, while only giving up 7 against the tough Moc defense.

The first 10 minutes of the half, the story was Chattanooga's ability to get second half points. They had 7 offensive rebounds and led the game in boards until the Cyclones started picking up the pace on the glass, not allowing a Mocs offensive rebound the rest of the half.

Turnovers were the same story to start the second half. Both teams were able to score if they were able to hold onto the ball, and Iowa State entered the first media timeout with a 57-37 lead after back to back threes from Morris and Mitrou-Long.

The 3-point clinic continued, as Naz hit another one out of the timeout, followed by two Dee Oldham triples to try and keep the Mocs in the game. The streak of five 3-pointers ended after a Jameel McKay put back dunk.

The hardest hit of the night came at the 13 minute mark, when everyone's favorite official, John Higgins, took a ball to the face. Fortunately, Higgins was used to it, knew what to do, and avoided any serious injury. The Cyclones were up 62-43 at the time of the injury.

After some more back and forth fighting between both teams, Iowa State held a 78-58 lead heading into the final media timeout. They were able to maintain that margin and came away with the 20 point victory, 83-63.

A few interesting stats to note

- Iowa State hit 48% of their threes. It doesn't matter the competition, any time that happens, Iowa State is going to win. Mitrou-Long, Niang, and Hallice Cooke all shot over 60% from deep.

- While both Nader and Niang had two fouls in the first half, Iowa State had no foul trouble from any players in the second half, a great sign at this point in the season for a team that's low on depth.

- The Cyclones are now 3 for 3 in holding their opponents under 40% shooting in the Prohman Empire. We've known the offense is there, it now appears the defense may also be there as well.

- It's hard to describe the feeling Steve Prohm gives during his press conferences. He always appears happy, but not satisfied of this team. He loves this group and is constantly trying to find out ways to make them even stronger.

Iowa State will take on Virginia Tech this upcoming Friday, November 27th at 6 p.m. on CBS Sports Network in Niceville, Florida to kick off the real portion of the Emerald Coast Classic.