Monte Morris' triple double, ISU's 130 points lead to blowout of The Citadel

AMES — Iowa State men's basketball coach Steve Prohm knew his team had a chance to score a lot of points.

He just didn't think it would be a school-record amount.

'I mean, 130 is a lot of points,' Prohm said after No. 13 Iowa State's 130-63 win against The Citadel. 'I don't care who you play, or where you play, it's a lot of points. You probably think you could probably get close to 100 (against The Citadel).'

The Bulldogs (3-2) are the top-rated team in college basketball in tempo, but are 350th out of 351 in terms of adjusted defense, according to KenPom.com. And Cyclones (3-0) point guard Monte Morris took advantage of it, as ISU surpassed the school record of 129 points scored against Northeastern Illinois on Nov. 24, 1978.

Morris had 17 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds, becoming the fifth player in Iowa State history to record a triple double, and the first since Royce White in 2012. Curtis Stinson (2006), Jamaal Tinsley (2000) and Marc Urquhart (1989) were the other three.

It was his 68th career game with 10 points or more and his 13th game with 10 assists or more, but his first with at least 10 rebounds.

Senior guard Naz Mitrou-Long, who scored a career-high 26 points, even tried to give Morris some help with that final rebound.

'We just tried to get him those rebounds and assists,' said guard Matt Thomas, who had 18 points and five rebounds. 'Actually one time Naz pretty much had a rebound and kind of shuffle-passed it over and then proceeded to yell at the scorer's table and tell him it was Monte's rebound (laughs). That just shows how selfless Naz is as a player out there.'

Iowa State's starters reentered the game midway through the second half up 59 in an effort to get Morris his final two assists and rebound, but Prohm's objective was two-fold. Twelve of Iowa State's 14 participants saw double-digit minutes, with the two exceptions being the walk-ons.

'I told my assistants, 'I'm going to look like I'm … subbing these guys back in,' Prohm said. 'A, Monte and everybody would have thrown water at me in the locker room if I didn't get him back in for the triple-double, so I had to do that.

'And the second thing is, these guys playing the last 10-12 minutes of the game, just five guys, that's tough and you can get sloppy. So I just wanted to get those guys one more three-minute rotation and then get them out.'

Eight ISU players scored in double figures, but it all started with Thomas' 14 points and 5-for-5 shooting in the first 5:09 to put Iowa State ahead 21-6. The Citadel made 15 3-pointers, but shot 27.3 percent from the field while Iowa State hit at a 60.5 percent clip.

The 62 first-half points were the most in an opening period for Iowa State since 1999 (63 at Hawaii-Hilo), and the 68 second-half points were the most in that period since 1991 (76 against Omaha).

'(The scoring record is) definitely a nice little accomplishment, but we've got to build, man,' Mitrou-Long said. 'Coach always says go 1-0, and this game is going to be behind us in a couple days and we've just got to go from there.'