Abdel Nader the X-factor in Iowa State's first-round victory

DENVER — Abdel Nader sat in the folding chair in front of his locker with a wrapped up bag of ice on his right arm and a smile on his face.

In that moment, Nader wasn't concerned with any pain.

Late in the second half of No. 4-seed Iowa State's 94-81 win against 13-seed Iona, Nader drove hard to the basket and was fouled by Iona guard A.J. English. The collision turned the senior horizontal in mid-air and sent him crashing to the floor on his arm and rear end.

Nader popped up after a minute, hit a free throw and ended the game with 19 points in 25 minutes.

'I'm a tough guy,' Nader said. 'It hurt a little bit, but I'm all right.'

Nader proved his toughness in responding to the foul from English, but also in the way he matched up with the Gaels (22-11) defenders. The 6-foot-6, 225-pound forward was an athletic mismatch and gave the Cyclones (22-11) an option to stretch the defense.

In Iowa State's initial 11-0 surge of the first half, Nader had five points, but played only nine first-half minutes because of foul trouble. His ability to finish at the rim in the second half — combined with his 3-for-4 shooting from long range — was an answer to Iona's mini-runs.

'Abdel played his tail off,' said Georges Niang. 'I hope he's healthy after that fall. That guy was huge for us in what we did today. We couldn't win without him. That was big time.'

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'I thought he made huge plays,' Iowa State coach Steve Prohm said of Nader. 'He made 3s, I think he didn't settle for 3s, he put pressure on the basket in the half court and transition. I thought defensively he was good as well.'

Niang, Monte Morris, Matt Thomas and Jameel McKay command a lot of attention from defenders, but Nader — at least against Iona — was the x-factor.

'My size helped me a lot today,' Nader said. 'I'm not trying to anything special out there. I'm just trying to be aggressive all the time and do a good job of that.'

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