Iowa State Dominates Kansas, Wins Big 12 Tournament Championship

Iowa State has won the Big 12 Tournament title after controller the Jayhawks on both ends of the floor. The Cyclones come away with a 78-66 victory at Hilton South.

Both teams came out flat, you could tell there was a bit of fatigue going on. The Cyclones were getting plenty of open looks in the first half. Marial Shayok would struggle from behind the three point line line starting the first half 0-5 from deep. Talen Horton Tucker was looking to get going early but shot 2-7 from the floor, but led all Cyclone scorers at the half with seven.

Iowa State would go on a 11-1 run to close out the first half and lead 32-22 at the break. Doing it all without both Michael Jacobson and Cameron Lard as both were forced to the bench with two fouls with around 8 minutes left in the first half. George Conditt would come in and provide a spark. Conditt played solid defense on Dedric Lawson and was making hustle plays to keep the possession in Iowa State’s favor. Iowa State held Lawson to only 5 points in the first half. Kansas shot 27.8% from the field, including 0-9 from three point range.

Iowa State came out fast. Hustle and defense sprang for a 7-0 run to get the Cyclone lead to 15 early on in the second half. Bill Self was forced to use one of his timeouts leaving him with one with around seventeen minutes left in the game. The Cyclones would get the lead to 17 but Kansas would start to battle back. Getting the Cyclone lead down to seven but the Cyclones would shut the door and get the lead back up to 15.

Back and worth the margin of lead went from 15 to 10 on multiple occasions and both teams were trading blows. Iowa State would lead 60-47 at the under eight minute timeout. Lindell Wigginton would be the vocal point of the Iowa State offense for a lot of the second half. Iowa State with Wigginton got a bit stagnant on offense and Kansas would cut the lead to 9 and Steve Prohm would call a quick timeout to settle his guys.

Nick Weiler Babb would respond with a 5-0 run of his own with a couple of free throws and a deep three pointer late in the shot clock to take the Iowa State to 14 at 65-51. Iowa State hold serve with a 14 point lead till under the four minute mark and Kansas would come right back to cut it to single digits with a 5-0 run of their own. Iowa State would lead 70-61 under the four minute mark.

Iowa State would fend off Kansas on the defensive end of the floor. Dedric Lawson would slam the ball in frustration and be assessed a technical foul with 1:21 left in the game. Iowa State would sink four free throws and control the game the rest of the way as Iowa State would go on to win their second Big 12 Championship in three years. Lindell Wigginton led all Cyclones scorers with 17 points.

Stay tuned as Iowa State heads the NCAA Tournament.