Iowa State hammers Sooners 83-64
BY GUERIN EMIG World Sports Writer
Tuesday, February 05, 2013
2/05/13 at 7:26 AM
AMES, Iowa - Iowa State, the prettiest basketball team in the Big 12 Conference, was in full bloom Monday night at the Hilton Coliseum.
The Cyclones hit jumpers, flew in for dunks and played the type of offense that has them leading the Big 12 in scoring, 3-pointers and assists. It's how they dropped an 83-64 hammer on Oklahoma and took over third place in the conference in the process.
"We put everything together," coach Fred Hoiberg said after his Cyclones improved to 16-6 overall and 6-3 in the league.
As for the Sooners?
"I wouldn't think we'd feel good about our competitiveness tonight at all," coach Lon Kruger said.
Kruger sure didn't. It's why he put five new players in the game at the first timeout, when Iowa State already had built a 20-13 lead.
By that point, the Cyclones' Will Clyburn already had beaten OU to two putbacks, including one off a teammate's missed free throw. Clyburn, Georges Niang, Melvin Ejim and Korie Lucious already had drained 3-pointers over a five-possession sequence.
A problem with the scouting report? Hardly.
"That's what they rely on, shooting 3s," OU forward Andrew Fitzgerald said. "We weren't defending the perimeter like we were supposed to."
They weren't defending anyone like they were supposed to, outside or in. That was apparent with 5:08 left in the first half, when Clyburn, the game's top scorer with 19 points, drove by Amath M'Baye and thundered home a ferocious one-hand slam.
The 13,178 Iowa State partisans went nuts. They'd rise again early in the second half, when Lucious whipped back-to-back feeds to Ejim for a layup and alley-oop slam to make it 53-33.
"Clearly a ballgame that Iowa State dictated from start to finish in pretty much every way," Kruger said after the Sooners dropped to 14-7 overall and 5-4 in the Big 12.
Asked if he sensed any resistance from his team, OU forward Romero Osby said: "I don't think so. They pretty much got what they wanted."
That's where the Sooners' pride should have kicked in. They hadn't lost back-to-back games all season. Here was a chance to correct Saturday's 52-50 homecourt loss to Kansas State.
"Other occasions, we've responded with a lot of fight, and good fight," Kruger said. "We've been very consistent with that all year. That was really the first time we haven't responded."
"That bothers me," Osby said. "That's our MO, to expect to compete every time we go out."
Did the K-State loss take too much of them?
"They played after we did on Saturday," Fitzgerald said, noting Iowa State finished beating Baylor two hours after OU finished with K-State. "They came out and had a lot of energy. We didn't. That's no excuse."
Did anyone see it coming?
"No, not really," said Fitzgerald, OU's leading scorer in the game with 12 points. "To be honest with you, I thought coming into this game we had a lot of energy. Guys were talking to each other. And it seemed like at the jump ball, that energy just went away. We weren't really communicating."
Iowa State sure was. They made seven of their first 10 3s. By the half, they had 44 points, eight 3s, 11 assists, six blocked shots and just three turnovers.
OU was 1-for-7 from 3-point range, with six assists, five turnovers, one blocked shot and 31 points.
It only got worse from there, and the Sooners wound up leaving town with their worst loss in Ames since 1997. They'll come home to host Kansas Saturday as the sixth-place team in the Big 12, with the alarm from Monday night still ringing in their ears.
"They whipped us in every way," Kruger said. "We've got to get back to work on a lot of things."
Oklahoma up next
Vs. Kansas 3 p.m. Saturday
TV: ESPN-25 Radio: KMOD fm.97.5, KTBZ am1430, KITO fm96.1
Original Print Headline: Cyclones slam listless Sooners
Guerin Emig 918-581-8355
guerin.emig@tulsaworld.com
Associated Images:
Oklahoma forward Amath M'Baye (22) has his shot blocked by Iowa State center Percy Gibson (24) in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Monday. Iowa State won 83-64. JUSTIN HAYWORTH / AP Photo
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