Iowa State defeats Arizona men's basketball, avenges January overtime loss

Iowa State defeats Arizona men’s basketball, avenges January overtime loss

Posted by author March 2, 2025 Basketball

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Bruce Pascoe
| Arizona Daily Star

AMES, Iowa – This time, Iowa State didn’t even leave the door open. They blocked it with a barrage of early 3-pointers and held on for an 84-67 win over the Arizona Wildcats.

Leading for most of Arizona’s overtime win against the Cyclones on Jan. 27, before Caleb Love hit a 60-foot bomb to send the game into overtime and to an eventual Wildcat victory, the Cyclones on Saturday pulled ahead of the Wildcats by hitting 9 of 13 3-pointers in the first half, took leads of up to 24 points in the second half and held on while the Wildcats cut it to single digits late in the game.

Five Iowa State players scored in double digits while the Cyclones hit 50% overall and held UA to just 33.9% shooting on the other end. Jaden Bradley led the Wildcats with 18 points while UA coach Tommy Lloyd also played him alongside seldom used point guard Conrad Martinez.

Unable to play in Arizona’s Jan. 27 win over Iowa State, Milan Momcilovic led the Cyclones with 17 points while making 4 of 7 3-pointers. He was 4 of 5 from 3 with 14 points in the first half, though he suffered a bloody nose midway through the second half and briefly exited the game.

Arizona’s loss dropped the Wildcats to 19-10 overall and 13-5 in the Big 12, where they are again tied for second place with Texas Tech, which won at Kansas earlier Saturday. The Wildcats’ loss had no impact on Houston’s outright Big 12 title, which the Cougars clinched by beating Cincinnati earlier Saturday in Houston.

Iowa State improved to 22-7 and 12-6.

Trailing 43-30 at halftime, Arizona had no response early in the second half. The Wildcats fell behind by 24 points, 62-38, by the time Curtis Jones raced in for a fast-break layup with 12:38 to go. Jones finished a 6-0 run by Iowa State that also included a putback from Brandton Chatfield inside and a fastbreak layup Tamin Lipsey made after stealing the ball at midcourt from Love.

But UA later went on an 8-0 run to pull within 67-53 after KJ Lewis scored twice within a minute off Iowa State turnovers. Lewis hit 6 of 6 free throws over a two-minute span to pull UA within 11 points and Carter Bryant made a layup after stealing the ball from Joshua Jefferson, cutting Iowa State’s lead to just 71-61.

Jaden Bradley later made a three-point play to cut the score to 74-63 but Iowa State broke UA’s ensuing press, resulting in a dunk from Nate Heise with 2:58 left and the Cyclones stayed ahead by double digits the rest of the way.

In the first half, Momcilovic hit four of Iowa State’s nine 3-pointers before halftime, when Iowa State took a 43-30 lead after also holding Arizona to just 31.0% shooting on the other end. Momcilovic finished with 14 points in the half, while Caleb Love had eight points to lead the Wildcats.

Love hit two 3-pointers to help offset Iowa State’s early run but missed five others, including an attempt at the halftime buzzer.

Arizona shot 29.0% overall from the field and made just 3 of 13 3-pointers.

Both teams were mired in a defensive struggle for the first six minutes of the game, with Iowa State leading just 5-4 after Chatfield blocked a shot from Trey Townsend and scored on the other end, before the Cyclones took off.

Iowa State hit three 3-pointers over two minutes and 11 seconds to take a 23-22 lead and then hit another three over the next four minutes. That put Iowa State up 32-17 with 6:17 to go.

Momcilovic had three of Iowa State’s six 3-pointers over that six-minute stretch, then added another with four minutes left to put the Cyclones up by 17.