Iowa State ends nonconference men’s basketball schedule with uneven win over Morgan State

AMES — Sometimes one out of three ain’t bad.

It’s just good enough — especially in the final nonconference men’s basketball game of the season.

So while No. 3 Iowa State didn’t meet its always-demanding expectations on the defensive end in Sunday’s 99-72 rout of Morgan State, it shined in sharing the basketball and ultimately sent an announced sellout crowd of 14,267 at Hilton Coliseum into the holiday season happy.

“The three things that we really want to do well, guard the ball, rebound the ball, share the ball — share the ball was the positive,” said Cyclones head coach T.J. Otzelberger, whose team tied a season high in assists with 26 while improving to 10-1. “So the message was, really, nonconference, we did the job we needed to do. We should feel good about that. I think guys at times, you’ve got to celebrate certain things. Not too much, but enough where you appreciate the hard work that you’ve done.”

Morgan State (6-9) entered the game ranked 348th by KenPom but managed to get an array of easy looks at the basket while shooting 46 percent from the field. The Cyclones struggled to produce their usual high number of live ball turnovers, but finally outscored the Bears, 23-18, off those miscues.

Tamin Lipsey led six ISU players in double figures with a season-high 20 points on 8-for-9 shooting. Fellow starting guards Curtis Jones and Keshon Gilbert added 19 points and 18 points, respectively — and along with Lipsey, combined for 18 assists of those 26 assists.

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“I think we’re feeling very confident just with our connectedness together,” said Lipsey, who also notched a team-best three steals. “We’re ready for the challenge, the competition (of Big 12 play). Obviously some of us have been through it and know it’s a grind, and everyone’s looking forward to it.”

The Cyclones beat three KenPom top-45 teams in their nonconference slate — Dayton, Marquette and Iowa — and it’s only loss came by two points to AP No. 2 Auburn in Maui.

ISU will face just one team outside of KenPom’s top 90 during its grinding 20-game conference schedule, and it will open league play Dec. 30 at Colorado. The Cyclones beat the Buffaloes, 99-71, in Maui, but should expect a sterner challenge in Boulder.

“I think there are a lot of positives to take away from what we’ve done,” Otzelberger said. “I think we’ve seen, at times, the team that we can be. I would say that the consistency is gonna be something we need to continue to work on on both ends. As far as how that will be viewed in March? I think we’ve had some good wins, we’ve had a road win, we’ve had some good neutral (court) wins — I think all of those matter. So now, as our guys go home for the break and have some time with their families, you know, it’s shifting gears. It’s turning that page to the next part of the schedule.”

And now that formerly round-robin conference slate of 18 games has two more legs. So there will be plenty of other opportunities to enhance ISU’s pre-NCAA tournament resume — and ISU won’t be OK with going 1-for-3 in its key measures of performance in any game from here on out.

“There’s not time off, there’s not a buy (game), there’s not an opportunity to regroup,” said Otzelberger, whose team has scored 80-plus points in each game this season, a streak that leads the nation. “So much of it comes down to, can you keep getting better every single day? That will be our challenge.”

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