Iowa State Advances to Sweet 16

0:00On March 22nd Iowa State punched their ticket to the sweet 16, with an 82-63 win over Kentucky in the NCAA tournament's second round. Tamin Lipsi led the way with 26 points and tennisists, stepping up big without injured star Joshua Jefferson. Milan-Mom Salovic chipped in 20 points, and Nate Heiss added 12 as the second-seated cyclones improved to 29 and 7. Kentucky jumped out to a 20-9 lead early, but Iowa State clawed back to take a 31-30 edge at halftime. The Wildcats hung tough until midway through the second half, when the cyclone sparked a 13-1 runoff turnovers to pull away. Jefferson, the team's second leading scorer and top rebounder, sat out with a sprained ankle from the first round, leaving fans wondering about his. Status for the next games. Kentucky's guards, Otega Oei and Denzel Aberdeen scored 38 points combined, but got little support amid 20 turnovers. Now the cyclones head to Chicago for Friday's Midwest region semi-finals against either third-seated Virginia or sixth-seated Tennessee.

1:06Iowa State has history with both, splitting games with Virginia and dropping recent ones to Tennessee. This victory marks the cyclones eighth-sweet 16-trip and third under coach TJ Otsilberger, keeping their deep run alive despite the setback.