Iowa State basketball: Cyclones outlast Texas Tech in overtime road win

Posted by Admin January 11, 2025 Basketball

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Iowa State basketball suffered an overtime loss to Texas Tech in its previous road trip to Lubbock in 2023. But on Saturday, the Cyclones’ first time back at United Supermarkets Arena, they were able to pull off the win in overtime.

The third-ranked Cyclones won the tightly-contested battle, 85-84, to outlast Texas Tech. It is Iowa State’s first road win over the Red Raiders since 2019.

With 4.1 seconds remaining in OT, Joshua Jefferson was fouled attempting a layup. He went 2-for-2 from the line to put Iowa State up by one point. Texas Tech’s Derrion Williams had a shot at the buzzer, but it was off the mark and the Cyclones held on for the win.

“We’re really fortunate, so much respect for (Texas) Tech — the program, their coaches, their players — they’re a great team and this is really a hard place to play,” Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger told Cyclone Radio. “Proud of our guys for staying resilient, staying together. It wasn’t perfect, but found a way to hang in there and make just enough plays and then Joshua Jefferson late at the foul line and his resiliency in the paint was really impactful.”

Curtis Jones opened overtime with a 3-pointer, but Texas Tech responded with a 7-0 run to take an 81-77 lead with 1:32 left. The Cyclones were able to chip away the deficit and win the back-and-forth battle. There were four lead changes in the final 49 seconds of the game.

Jones led Iowa State with a season-high 26 points on 8-of-15 shooting. Jefferson had 17 points and eight rebounds. Keshon Gilbert finished with 14 points, four assists, four steals and six turnovers. Tamin Lipsey had nine points, two assists, four steals and four turnovers.

Iowa State shot 31-of-59 (52.5%) overall and 6-for-17 (35.3%) from deep.

“We weathered that storm in the first half, had to weather it again in the second half and had to hang in there late just to score enough to get it to overtime,” Otzelberger said. “Just a credit to our guys playing one possession at a time. This place was rocking.”

For Texas Tech, J.T. Toppin, Christian Anderson and Chance McMillian each had 18 points. Darrion Williams added 15 points.

The Red Raiders shot 28-of-66 (42.4%) and 9-of-20 (45.0%) from the 3-point line. Texas Tech outrebounded Iowa State, 37-31.

Iowa State started slowly on both ends of the court, as Texas Tech raced out in front and held the lead for the entirety of the first half.

Toppin and Williams, the Red Raiders’ NBA Draft prospect tandem, accounted for 14 of Texas Tech’s first 16 points of the game.

The Red Raiders were physical on the glass and took advantage of the Cyclones’ miscues on defense.

Texas Tech led by as many as 13 points in the first half, after McMillian drilled a 3-pointer to make it 31-18 with 6:06 left in the half. That would be the Red Raiders’ largest lead of the game.

Iowa State eventually trimmed the deficit and a series of Jones free throws allowed the Cyclones to cut the Texas Tech lead down to 40-34 at the break.

The Cyclones took their first lead of the game halfway through the second half when Lipsey knocked down a 3-pointer to cap off a 10-0 run to give Iowa State a 58-55 lead with 9:24 remaining.

It was a back-and-forth battle the rest of the way.

Down 74-72 with 6.2 seconds left in regulation, Iowa State was able to salvage the game and push it to overtime. Lipsey had a savvy pass at the basket to Jefferson, who made the game-tying buzzer-beating layup to force the extra period.

“It’s a great play that our coaches draw up,” Jefferson said of his basket to force overtime. “We practice it every single day in practice and we just come out here and execute. That’s why we take practice so serious, and T.J. expects that out of us to just come in and lock in for that time being, so it’s good to see everything that we work on come out here.”

The Cyclones are now 14-1 overall and 4-0 in Big 12 play. They will return home for the next game on Wednesday when they host the Kansas Jayhawks. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT.

“It’s a good thing that we don’t play until Wednesday, usually we would have played Monday or Tuesday but we got a couple extra days,” Jones said. “My body feels fine, though. A lot of adrenaline was running during that second half, so I feel good. I hope the guys feel good, but even if not, we’ll get right back at it.”

Eugene Rapay covers Iowa State athletics for the Des Moines Register. Contact Eugene at erapay@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @erapay5.