Cyclones Send Huskies to the Pound 94-80

After (another) sluggish start to the game, the Cyclones and Huskies traded leads for a good part of the first half before Lindell Wigginton began forcing his will and driving the basket. As a result, Lindell took a few trips top the line where he converted. Near the end of the first half, Northern Illinois took advantage of a few Cyclone mistakes to take a three point lead into the break. Worth noting: Northern Illinois’ success was largely due to their converting seemingly every shot they threw up, regardless of difficulty. However, the Iowa State defense was seriously lacking, especially in defending high ball screens.

After a slow couple minutes to start the second, the Cyclones talent and athleticism took over. Lindell once again proved why he was so highly rated coming out of high school, making a number of EXTREMELY athletic plays on both ends of the floor. On multiple occasions, the young Canadian seemingly shot out of a cannon to intercept passes on the wing, eventually ending in a dunk.

The Cyclones’ fast break offense has looked greatly improved since the first two games of the season, with even the freshman showing great court awareness and maintaining floor spacing to get open shots from the wing for Donovan Jackson and Wigginton.

We still saw some early season/freshman mistakes from the group, but Cyclone fans should be extremely pleased with the progress this team has made in such short span of time, and how much room for growth they still have.