Iowa State’s struggling front line made Nebraska center Aleks Maric look like an All-American and it may have ended the Cyclone’s hopes of making it to the NCAA Tournament. The 6-11 sophomore poured in a career high 37 points and added 16 rebounds as the Huskers beat the Cyclones 73-63 in Ames. Maric was unstoppable as he made 13 of 15 shots in the game.
I-S-U coach Wayne Morgan on his post game show on the Cyclone Network says they weren’t able to stop Maric and let him have a career night. Iowa State won the first game with Nebraska by pushing the tempo. Last night the Huskers made it a half court game. Morgan says when his team pressed, Nebraska took their time and then set up the offense. Morgan says that was probably part of the Huskers strategy, to make his team play defense for a long time.
Iowa State’s undoing this season has been an inability to win home games. They are 2-4 in the Big 12 in Hilton Coliseum. Morgan says they have not done as well at home as they’d like to, and he says they’ll continue working as hard as they can and at some point that will be good enough to win and create a home court advantage.
Will Blalock led I-S-U with 23 points and says Nebraska did what the Cyclones did in the first meeting. They took control early and got momentum. Blalock says they got after it and did the same thing he says the Cyclones did at Nebraska.
The Cyclones rallied in the second half and tied the game on two occasions before the Huskers pulled away. The Cyclones are 4-7 in the conference and 14-10 overall.