Iowa State dominated from start to finish as the Cyclones rolled past Drake 90-70 in Des Moines on Tuesday night. Lucca Staiger scored a career-high 32 points on 10-of-16 from three point range and for the game I.S.U. was 14-of-23 from behind the arc.
Cyclone coach Greg McDermott says he couldn’t be happier with his team as they were very efficient offensively and they defended Drake very well. Iowa State snapped a three game losing streak in the series and on their previous visit to Drake suffered a 35 point loss. McDermott says they were really able to control the tempo and several times ran the shot clock down and got the shot they wanted.
I.S.U. improves to 3-0. Drake was led by freshman forward Ben Simons who had 24 points. The Bulldogs drop to 0-2. Drake coach Mark Phelps on his postgame show on KRNT in Des Moines says Iowa State is a very good team that is deep and athletic. He says they have players that will stand out in the Big 12 and nationally as the season moves on. Phelps says the Cyclones have a lot of weapons and are very physical and his team needs to continue to improve its defense and also needs to play a more physical brand of basketball.