Iowa State Tops Northern Colorado

Friday, November 26

Ames, Iowa

TBA

Iowa State

2-0

Northern Colorado

0-5

Team	1	2	F
Northern Colorado	19	20	39
Iowa State	24	33	57

11.26.2004 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Iowa State University

AMES, Iowa (AP) - Will Blalock returned from a one-game suspension to score 17 points and Jared Homan added 14 points and 11 rebounds, helping Iowa State pull away late for a 57-39 victory over winless Northern Colorado on Friday night.

Iowa State (2-0) struggled most of the game against Northern Colorado's 2-3 zone and needed a 22-2 run in the final 11 1/2 minutes to avoid what would have been an embarrassing loss in the first round of its own Cyclone Challenge.

The Cyclones will play Bucknell in the championship game Saturday night. Bucknell advanced with a 62-49 victory over Stephen F. Austin.

Northern Colorado's zone kept Iowa State's Curtis Stinson from driving into the lane to make shots or set up his teammates and the Cyclones didn't shoot well enough from the perimeter to loosen the defense, going just 4-for-21 from 3-point range.

But they still came up with enough offense at the end after Northern Colorado (0-5) tied the score at 35 on James Randle's turnaround shot with 11:32 left. Homan, a 6-foot-10 senior, made just the second 3-pointer of his career to break the tie and Curtis Stinson fired a pass three-fourths the length of the court to Blalock for a layup.

After Kirk Archibeque scored for Northern Colorado, Iowa State ran off the next 15 points to put it away. When Stinson lobbed a pass to the 6-foot Blalock for a dunk that made it 51-37 with 3:35 remaining, the crowd of 9,632 finally had something to roar about.

During the late run, Northern Colorado's Michael Gordy was ejected for a flagrant technical foul after tangling with Homan in a battle for a rebound. Sean Taibi led Northern Colorado with 14 points, while Erik Olson had nine points and 10 rebounds.

Stinson finished with nine points, six assists and four steals after going 0-for-9 in the first half.

Blalock was held out of Iowa State's opener for playing in an unsanctioned summer league game.