ST. LOUIS — Short-handed Iowa State was without versatile star forward Joshua Jefferson for its second-round NCAA Tournament Midwest Region matchup with Kentucky on Sunday.
But the Cyclones had their feral defense, and that was more than enough to tame the Wildcats, which coughed up 20 turnovers that led to 25 points during an 82-63 beatdown in St. Louis.
Iowa State will next face No. 6 seed Tennessee (24-11) in the Sweet 16 on Friday.
With Jefferson out due to an ankle injury suffered during Friday’s 108-74 blowout over Tennessee State, the second-seeded Cyclones (29-7) relied on veteran point guard Tamin Lipsey. He scored 17 of his game-high 26 points after halftime and added 10 assists, one more than Kentucky had as a team.
Milan Momcilovic added 20 points, while Nate Heise chipped in 12 and freshman Killyan Toure netted 10 points. Iowa State canned 19 of 30 field-goal attempts in the second half, including 13 of 18 on 2-pointers.
But the main factor was defense. The Cyclones trailed 20-9 in less than nine minutes as seventh-seeded Kentucky (22-14) started 8 of 12 from the field and 4 of 6 from deep.
Once Iowa State started extending its defense and applied intense pressure on ballhandlers, the Wildcats came to a grinding halt. They committed 12 turnovers in the first half and were unable to turn the tide during their final 20 minutes of the season.
Denzel Aberdeen scored 20 points for Kentucky and Otega Oweh added 18 and eight rebounds, but it wasn’t quite enough. The Wildcats shot decently from the field, making 46.7%, but only attempted 45 shots because of all the turnovers.
Kentucky coughed it up on three of its last four possessions in the first half and the Cyclones parlayed that into the halftime lead. Heise canned a 3-pointer with 1.3 seconds left for a 31-30 edge at intermission.
The margin steadily grew for most of the second half as Iowa State zeroed in from the field while the Wildcats kept turning it over. Kentucky coach Mark Pope couldn’t even stop the momentum with two timeouts in less than three minutes.
The Cyclones eventually led by as many as 23 points.
–Bucky Dent, Field Level Media
