Hlas: Cyclones douse Oklahoma and recent woes with fire

AMES — Reports of the demise of Iowa State's men's basketball team?

Yeah, you know the next sentence. They were greatly exaggerated.

You don't beat the No. 1 team in the nation without being alive. The Cyclones and their fans belched fire in a Hilton Coliseum blast furnace during a Big Monday game as exciting as the sport offers.

Yes, ISU fans stormed the court after their team's 82-77 victory over top-ranked Oklahoma. It was a jubilant release after two hours of tension and thrills, and a couple weeks of disappointments, with questions about the Cyclones' willingness to play defense.

'Coach (Steve Prohm) challenged us,' said ISU senior forward Georges Niang, who was very Niang-like with 22 points and heady play. 'When people start counting you out, can you stick together?

'After we hit rock-bottom, we came together.'

It isn't as if the Cyclones started resembling the Rutgers of the prairie. They lost by four points at Oklahoma, by five at home to ranked Baylor, and in overtime at Texas. But it was the way they were playing that didn't warm hearts. They weren't playing winning ball. They weren't playing good defense.

Oh, how the Cyclones defended Monday. You can't totally stifle super-scorer Buddy Hield and his explosive OU team. No one has yet this season. But Iowa State guarded, and guarded some more.

Hield scored 27 points, yet the Cyclones can still say they checked the 6-foot-4 senior pretty well. Hield peeled off three 3-pointers in the game's first six minutes, but ISU's Matt Thomas stayed on him and made little come easy for him despite how easy Hield makes it appear.

'Obviously, they had more fight than us tonight,' Hield said.

Oklahoma, the best 3-point shooting team in Division I, improved its fantastic percentage by making 17 of 32 from that range here. But most of those shots were contested, and a couple were second-half prayers that were answered. One was a 35-footer by Dante Buford.

Still, when it came to hard-nosed offense and defense, consider these statistics: Iowa State had 38 points in the paint, Oklahoma just 18. The Cyclones had 16 second-chance points to OU's 8.

The Sooners were held to 42.4 percent from the field overall despite their 3-point mastery. Cyclone center Jameel McKay had four of his team's seven blocked shots, and altered others.

'We made toughness plays tonight,' ISU Coach Steve Prohm said.

These were the Cyclones the preseason polls slotted in America's Top 10, even some Top 5s.

Oklahoma was second-best here (barely) after rolling into town with 'No. 1' added to its handle just several hours earlier.

There's never a time that beating No. 1 isn't wonderful, but this was extra-savory. After wheezing to this game with a 2-3 Big 12 record that followed a Dec. 19 loss to Northern Iowa, Iowa State showed why it was still a No. 5 seed in Monday morning's edition of ESPN bracketology.

The Cyclones hadn't beaten a No. 1 team since they stopped Wilt Chamberlain's Kansas team in ISU's old Armory, 39-37. That was in 1957.

This game didn't have a Chamberlain, but it had to have been more of a treat to watch.

What a wild season so far in Iowa. Iowa's three state schools have hosted a top-ranked team, and all three prevailed.

Northern Iowa toppled North Carolina in November. Iowa roasted Michigan State in December. Now, Iowa State pops Oklahoma.

'Basketball is alive and well here,' Niang said. 'It's at an elite level in Iowa, and I'm proud to be part of it.'

Is this hell (for No. 1 teams)? No, it's Iowa.