Iowa State rallies against Kansas to win Big 12

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Who needs blowouts?

Iowa State stormed back from a big second-half deficit to defeat Kansas 70-66 in the Big 12 Tournament title game on Saturday at the Sprint Center. The four-point margin was the Cyclones’ largest of the tournament.

Iowa State hit 5 of 6 free throws in the final 48 seconds to open a five-point lead before Kansas forward Brannen Greene hit a 3-point shot with six seconds left to cut the deficit to two.

Cyclones guard Naz Long sealed it with two free throws with 2.9 seconds left.

Iowa State forward Georges Niang was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. He was joined on the all-tournament team by teammate Monte’ Morris, Kansas guard Wayne Selden, Baylor forward Rico Gathers and Oklahoma guard Buddy Hield.

Once again, the Cyclones were down by a bunch but managed to come back. This time, they trailed Kansas by 17 with less than 30 seconds gone in the second half.

“That was tough,” Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg said. “When they went up 17 and we called a timeout, (we) challenged them. ‘What have you got left in the tank? Let’s leave it out there; let’s go down swinging and fighting and whatever happens, happens.’

“Our guys did exactly that. We tried to talk to them about getting it to single digits and then anything can happen. I couldn’t be more proud of how they responded in that timeout.”

Hoiberg’s players were confident they could do it again.

“With the guys that we have and the coach that we have, we have no quit in us,” Niang said. “We were all talking about what we had to do and we had to stay positive and push through and I think we did that.

“I feel like we’re built for this. We don’t want to come back every time, but it just seems to keep happening to us. When our name gets called, we answer the bell.”

Iowa State (25-8) was led by Niang with 19 points. Forward Abdel Nader added 13 points, and forward Jaleel McKay and Morris each had 11.

Kansas (26-8) was led by Selden with 25 points and guard Frank Mason with 13.

All appeared lost for Iowa State when it fell behind 40-23 early in the second half. Mason made three free throws to start the second half to open up a 17-point lead.

“We put ourselves into a great position up 17 with about 19:30 left,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “And then we didn’t really defend or rebound, and those were the two things we did great the first half.

“(We were) not thinking about holding them off. You’re on the defense if you’re thinking that way. So we talked about extending the lead at halftime. But when things fell apart, they scored an absurd number of points in the paint the second half and none of them were off post-up touches.”

A quick 10-0 Iowa State run, with six points from McKay and four points from Niang, cut the lead to single digits.

After two free throws by Mason, the Cyclones rattled off the next seven points and it was a one-possession game with 14:46 left.

“We know it’s a long game,” Selden said. “No matter whether you’re up or down, it’s going to be a long game and you just want to get stops down the stretch.”

The Cyclones were helped by the fact that the Jayhawks could not score from the field. Their first field goal of the second half came with 13:52 left on an alley-oop from Mason to Selden.

Kansas held Iowa State at bay until guard Bryce Dejean-Jones stole the ball and raced in for a dunk to tie the score at 51.

Iowa State, which has fallen into the habit of digging itself a hole, appeared headed for the same fate early.

Fortunately for the Cyclones, who missed eight of their first nine shots from the field, the Jayhawks made only three of their first 10. When Nader followed his 3-point basket with a drive and a dunk, the Cyclones owned a 9-7 lead.

But eventually their frigid shooting caught up with them. Kansas pulled away late to lead 37-23