ST. LOUIS — Two and a half minutes into No. 2 seeded Iowa State’s First Round game against No. 15 seeded Tennessee State, the (per the box score) 17,192 in attendance seemingly held their collective breath as consensus All-American Joshua Jefferson fell awkwardly.
Jefferson required assistance off the floor and returned to the bench with crutches and a boot.
“He has a sprained left ankle, we had an x-ray and the x-ray was negative, so we’ll continue to reevaluate over the next day or two and just see
where things are when we get to Sunday and we figure out what time we play,” head coach T.J. Otzelberger said.
In his absence, the Cyclones (28-7, 12-6 Big 12) offense seemed to run on 108 octane in their 108-74 victory over the Tigers (23-10, 15-5 Ohio Valley) Friday at the Enterprise Center. The 108 points are a school record for most points in an NCAA tournament game.
Dante Harris’ layup with 15:18 remaining in the first half trimmed Iowa State’s lead to two, 9-7. Over the next 5:31, the Cyclones went on a 23-0 run. Milan Momcilovic and Nate Heise each tallied eight points in the run, Batemon scored five points and Toure contributed two of his career high 25 points. Toure also pulled down a team high 11 rebounds in the win.
Heise contributed 22 points off the bench. Iowa State outscored the Tigers 50-6 from players that weren’t starters.
A Dominkyas Pleta layup with 3:30 remaining in the opening 20 minutes put the cardinal and gold up 46-19.
At the 7:30 mark of the second half, Kavien Jones tangled up with Pleta. After review, Jones was ejected after committing a flagrant two foul.
Toure scored the final five points of the first half for the Cyclones. Aaron Nkrumah — with a team high 21 points — connected his second and final 3-point basket for the Tigers as the half expired with Iowa State leading 55-29.
The Cyclones continued their offensive onslaught in the second half. With 4:14 remaining in the contest, Momcilovic not only got Iowa State over the century mark but also gave the Cyclones their largest lead of the game at 38 points.
Oskaloosa native Eric Mulder’s dunk with 78 seconds finalized the scoring tally for ISU. Damon Howard Jr.’s triple, his lone points of the afternoon, gave TSU their final points of the contest.
Iowa State went 38-of-72 shooting from the field and 11-of-24 from deep. At the charity stripe, the Cyclones went 21-of-27. Tennessee State, on the other hand, went 28-of-65 from the field, and 5-of-11 from beyond the arc. The Tigers went 13-of-19 at the line.
Next up
No. 2 seeded Iowa State battles No. 7 seeded Kentucky. The Cyclones are 0-3 all time against the Wildcats, with the first matchup being a regular season game in Lexington on Dec. 9, 1964.
The other two matchups occurred in the NCAA Tournament in 1992 and 2012.
Box score
Iowa State 108, Tennessee State 74
Tennessee State (74) — Totals (FG FT PTS) 28 13-19 74. Aaron Nkrumah 7 5-7 21, Antoine Lorick III 9 0-0 20, Travis Harper II 4 5-6 13, Travis Harper II 5 1-2 11, Jalen Pitre 1 1-2 3, Damon Howard Jr 1 0-0 3, Jabrion Spikes 1 0-0 2, JC Brooks 0 1-2 1. 3-point goals — 5 (Lorick III 2, Nkrumah 2 Howard Jr. 1). FG shooting — 28-65 (43 percent). Rebounds — 29 (Pitre 8, Lorick III 8, Nkrumah 6, Spikes 2, Harris 1, Kavien Jones 1, Howard Jr. 1, Alex Garcia 1). Assists — 14 (Harris 4, Harper II 3, Nkrumah 3, Lorick III 2, Pitre 1, Howard Jr. 1). Steals — 8 (Harper II 3, Harris 2, Lorick III 1, Nkrumah 1, Carlous Williams 1). Blocked shots — 9 (Lorick III 3, Nkrumah 3, Pitre 2, Williams 1). Turnovers — 16. Team fouls — 22. Ejected — Jones (Flagrant two). Fouled out — None.
IOWA STATE (108) — Totals — (FG FT PTS) 38 21-27 108. Killyan Toure 8 7-8 25, Nate Heise 8 2-4 22, Milan Momcilovic 6 2-2 17, Blake Buchanan 5 1-2 11, Dominykas Pleta 3 3-4 9, Dominick Nelson 2 5-5 9, Jamarion Batemon 3 0-0 2, Tamin Lipsey 1 1-2 3, Joshua Jefferson 1 0-0 2, Eric Mulder 1 0-0 2. 3-point goals — 11 (Heise 4, Momcilovic 3, Toure 2, Batemon 2). FG shooting — 38-72 (52.7 percent). Rebounds — 43 (Toure 11, Buchanan 7, Momcilovic 4, Heise 4, Pleta 3, Mulder 3, Nelson 2, Lipsey 2, Jefferson 1). Assists — 24 (Buchanan 8, Toure 6, Heise 3, Momcilovic 2, Lipsey 2, Pleta 2, Nelson 1). Steals — 9 (Buchanan 3, Lipsey 3, Toure 1, Batemon 1, Nelson 1). Blocked shots — 5 (Buchanan 2, Momcilovic 2, Nelson 1). Turnovers — 11. Team fouls — 17. Fouled out — None.
