Cyclones fight through another double-digit deficit to beat Sooners

KANSAS CITY - Fred Hoiberg remembered seeing the play once before. It was the very same look that gave Oklahoma a last-second win against Kansas in the regular season finale.

Now it was OU forward Ryan Spangler's turn to put in a point-blank layup off a pass from Jordan Woodard to force overtime, and no one was near him.

'In the best wording possible when I saw him turn to pass it to Spangler, the words that ran through my head were ‘Oh no,'” said Iowa State forward Georges Niang. 'That's what I'm going to tell you guys, but it was something else.”

'Spangler gets wide open in the paint and your heart kind of drops,” said forward Dustin Hogue.

Inexplicably, the ball slipped from Spangler's hand and the fell off the front of the rim to preserve the Cyclones' 67-65 win against Oklahoma with Niang scoring 13 points and grabbing eight rebounds. Iowa State will face No. 1 seed Kansas on today at 5 p.m. for the Big 12 championship.

The No. 2 seed Cyclones (24-8, 12-6) rallied from their fourth-straight double-digit deficit to get the win, something that has become almost a formality. The Sooners (22-10, 12-6) had Iowa State down by 11 points three times in the first half, lastly at 21-10 with 9:20 to go in the first half.

Long-range shots weren't falling as the Cyclones missed their first nine 3-pointers, but no one on the seem thought hitting the panic button was necessary.

'I think we've built a tradition to where we're not going to get nervous anymore,” Hogue said. 'We're going to band together and just be able to talk to one another. We talk to each other and have that confidence that we're going to come back and win the game. The deficit really just disappears on us.”

Iowa State outscored Oklahoma, 19-9, to end the half in a tie, largely due to 12 combined points from Abdel Nader and Bryce Dejean-Jones off the bench. Center Jameel McKay was 2-for-2 shooting with 4 points in the opening half, but Hoiberg wanted to see even more energy.

'He needed to regroup and get himself going again, and he did that,” Hoiberg said. 'He got that tip in right away to give us a two-point lead on that first possession in the second half and really followed up the rest of the half with great energy.”

McKay finished with 12 points, nine rebounds and two blocks, igniting an 11-4 ISU run to put the Cyclones ahead 40-33. The Sooners rallied Buddy Hield and TaShawn Thomas, who scored 16 and 13 points respectively, and tied the game at 54-54 with less than eight minutes remaining.

Oklahoma took a four-point lead with 5:44 to go, but an 8-0 run put Iowa State up for good, and 1-of-2 free throws by Niang with less than 10 seconds left gave the Cyclones the final two-point edge.

Iowa State now has the opportunity to capture its second straight Big 12 tournament title against regular-season champion against Kansas.

'You've got the two best fan bases in the Big 12 Conference,” Hoiberg said. 'It should be a lot of fun here tomorrow night.”

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