Iowa State Crushes Arizona State, Eyes Texas Tech Rematch

0:00On March 11th Iowa State dominated Arizona State 91 to 42 in the first round of the big 12 tournament. Joshua Jefferson led with 20 points and 12 rebounds while Blake Buchanan hit a season high 17 points. The Cyclone's defense was stellar, forcing 23 turnovers that turned it to 25 points for Iowa State. The game started fast for Iowa State, building an 11 point lead in the first 8 minutes by jumping on 8 early Arizona State mistakes. They crashed the offensive boards hard too, grabbing 6 in the opening stretch for easy second chance buckets. Defense fueled their offense, just like Coach TJ Ozzelberger always preaches. That momentum carried over with a massive run in the second half, stretching a lead to 29 at halftime and coasting from there. Players like Milan, Momsolovic, added key threes, and Jefferson kept attacking inside. Fans saw a team firing on all cylinders, looking primed for a deep tournament run. Now Iowa State moves to the quarter finals against fourth-seated Texas Tech on Thursday

1:03at 11.30am Central Time. The Cyclone's lost to the Red Raiders 73-82 back on February 28th in their only home defeat this season, when Texas Tech drained 14 threes. Without star JT Toppen for the rest of the year due to a torrent ACL, Texas Tech faces a tougher path. Iowa State has a chance to flip that earlier result and keep rolling in Kansas City.