No. 6 Iowa State will have its hands full with enigmatic Arizona State on Saturday afternoon when the teams square off in Ames, Iowa, in a key Big 12 Conference clash that doubles as their regular-season finales.
The Cyclones (24-6, 11-6 Big 12) need a win over Arizona State and a No. 14 Kansas loss at home to Kansas State on Saturday to leap into the No. 4 seed and receive a double bye in the league tournament. It’s more likely that Iowa State will settle for the fifth position in the tourney and await the winner of the first-round game between the 12th and 13th seeds.
Iowa State heads home after a 73-57 loss at No. 2 Arizona on Monday. It was the second straight defeat and the third in the past four games for the Cyclones, all to ranked teams, with the swoon dropping Iowa State in the Big 12 standings.
Tamin Lipsey led Iowa State with 17 points while Jamarion Batemon had 14 points and Joshua Jefferson had 12 points and eight rebounds. Milan Momcilovic, the Cyclones’ top scorer at 17.0 points per game, managed just five points on 2-of-8 shooting from the field, including 1-of-5 from beyond the arc.
“This was not a hang your head type of loss because of how hard we fought,” Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger said. “It’s, ‘Let’s get back to work and let’s solve this offensively so we can feel a lot better about what we’re doing.’
“From our vantage point, the effort, the fight, the compete, the physicality from our guys for 40 minutes was tremendous. We really fought and brought it.”
Iowa State shot a season-low 29.2% from the field and 23.3% (7 of 30) from 3-point range, and its 57 points marked its second-lowest scoring output of the season.
“Shots just didn’t fall tonight,” redshirt senior guard Nate Heise said. “We didn’t finish strong.”
Arizona State (16-14, 7-10) will likely be one of the teams battling to play Iowa State in the Big 12 tourney. The Sun Devils are in 12th place after a 70-60 home upset of Kansas on Tuesday.
Maurice Odum hit five 3-pointers and racked up 23 points for the Sun Devils in the victory, their fourth in the past six games. Massamba Diop added 19 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots for Arizona State in a game it never trailed.
The Sun Devils outlasted Kansas despite shooting 32.2% from the field, making eight of 25 shots from beyond the arc and being outrebounded 55-43. The difference was a plus-13 margin in made free throws.
“I thought we played as good a defense as we played all season,” Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley said after the win. “You never know what can happen. We have another big-time opponent on Saturday and the Big 12 tournament. Every time you match up with someone, it’s a huge opportunity. So that’s how I have been approaching it.”
