For the first time since 2005 Iowa State has won at the Big 12 Tournament. The Cyclones erased a 12 point deficit in the final 10 minutes to beat Oklahoma 73-66.
“To win this one for our fans who have been coming down here in waves for so many years — its been a long 7 year drought — to find a way to get them a win, it’s really special, and I think our players sense that too,” Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg says.
Hoiberg says rebounding in the second half helped lead the comeback as he says they never led the lead get above 13 and that helped as they made a run and started playing harder. Melvin Ejim led the Cyclones with 23 points and 10 rebounds.
“We just stuck in there, we worked hard in the second half…for the most part of the second half it just wasn’t going our way but we started getting rebounds, we started getting shots and it just started going our way,” Ejim says.
Ejim says it was a huge win for the Cyclones and they knew what was at stake coming in and playing a team that had blown them out. He says at halftime they knew they weren’t playing their best, but knew they could come out and turn it around to get a win.
Iowa State improves to 22-10.