One of the big ones in the Big 12-Big East battle takes place in Ames, where No. 6 Iowa State welcomes No. 5 Marquette in an early season headliner Wednesday night.
The Cyclones (5-1) had a week of rest upon returning from the Maui Invitational with a 2-1 record. The lone blemish was a back-and-forth cliffhanger that eventually went to eventual champion Auburn (83-81), which landed at No. 2 in the latest Top 25 poll.
In Hawaii, the Cyclones beat Dayton 89-84 and handled Colorado, winning 99-71.
Milan Momcilovic led Iowa State with 24 points and six other Cyclones scored in double-figures, including 19 from Curtis Jones, in the finale against the Buffaloes.
“I think we grew up a lot in these three days,” Cyclones coach T.J. Otzelberger said. “Throughout the season, you have to handle adversity. You have to handle success. We were fortunate here from that perspective to have to fight through both.”
Cyclones guard Tamin Lipsey shifted his focus to the Golden Eagles immediately after the final buzzer.
“Obviously the goal here is to win it all and go 3-0. Came up a little bit short, but 2-1 with this great field of great teams, nothing to be sad about. Good time to get some rest heading into Marquette, looking forward to that game and preparing and getting healthy.”
Marquette (8-0) is off to its best start to a season since 2011-12, when the Golden Eagles were 10-0 before Christmas. They last played Saturday, handling Western Carolina 94-62 at home.
National Player of the Year candidate Kam Jones led the way with 20 points, 10 assists and six boards. Ben Gold added 12 points with four assists.
“I thought our guys had some moments where we really executed the way we wanted to be,” Marquette coach Shaka Smart said. “But then we had other moments where we weren’t as sharp or aggressive as we needed to be.”
Smart said the Western Carolina game represents a mile marker of sorts for Marquette as the schedule turns far more difficult.
“Obviously we’re subbing a lot, playing different lineups, getting young guys a lot of minutes, but whoever we have out there in a Marquette uniform, the standard is the standard,” he said. “This is obviously the last game like this for us, competition goes way up.”
Jones leads the Golden Eagles with 19.6 points and 6.2 assists per game. David Joplin is averaging 15.9 points and leads with six rebounds per game.
Keshon Gilbert, who was named Big 12 Player of the Week on Monday, leads the Cyclones with 16.5 points per game and contributes 5.3 assists. Jones supplies 16.2 points per game, while Joshua Jefferson averages a team-best 6.2 rebounds.
It’s been a while for these two programs, with the last matchup being all the way back in the 2003-04 season, which was a 77-69 win for Iowa State in the NIT semifinal. The Golden Eagles lead the all-time series, dating back to 1960, 5-3.
As part of the Big 12-Big East battle this week, No. 15 Baylor plays at No. 25 UConn and No. 1 Kansas visits Creighton.
–Field Level Media
