Jaren Holmes scored 14 points and No. 23 Iowa State lived up to its defensive reputation in a wire-to-wire 71-60 victory over visiting St. John’s Sunday afternoon in a Big East-Big 12 Battle at Ames, Iowa.
The Cyclones (7-1) won their second game over a Big East opponent with their strong defense.
Iowa State entered fourth nationally in turnover margin (plus-8.1) and ninth in steals (11.4) and excelled in both areas. The Cyclones forced 20 turnovers and notched 13 steals, marking the fourth time they forced at least 20 giveaways and the sixth time they registered double-digit steals.
Aljaz Kunc added 12 points and eight rebounds as Iowa State shot 42.9 percent and scored 34 points in the paint. Reserve Robert Jones added 11 while Osun Osunniyi contributed eight.
Caleb Grill collected 10 rebounds and five steals to go along with seven points as every player except Holmes and Hasan Ward recorded at least one steal.
Posh Alexander led the Red Storm (8-1) with 14 points but also committed a ghastly eight turnovers, Montez Mathis and Rafael Pinzon added 13 apiece as St. John’s shot a dreadful 35.8 percent in its first trip outside of New York City.
Joel Soriano collected 12 rebounds but was held to seven points and leading scorer David Jones finished with seven points as the Red Storm dropped to 4-17 against ranked opponents under Mike Anderson, who coached his 100th game at the school.
St. John’s missed its first nine shots as Iowa State scored the game’s first seven points and sped out to a 17-2 lead on a 3-pointer by Gabe Kalscheur with 10:47 remaining. Iowa State took a pair of 17-point leads and held a 33-22 lead by halftime.
Following an offensive foul by Alexander, a dunk by Osunniyi gave the Cyclones a 47-30 lead with 13 minutes remaining and another dunk by the forward made it 49-32 less than a minute later. St John’s made a small charge getting within 63-54 on a 3-pointer by Pinzon and a free throw by Mathis with about four minutes left.
Iowa State then finished it off when Tamin Lipsey stole the ball from David Jones and found Robert Jones for a dunk to make it 67-54 with 3:20 remaining. Lipsey then converted a layup on Iowa State’s next possession for a 69-54 margin that essentially clinched it.
–Field Level Media
