Cyclones Fall To Minnesota, 68-58

AMES, Iowa?Lawrence McKenzie buried five treys en route to 20 points to pace Minnesota to a 68-58 victory over Iowa State Tuesday night in Hilton Coliseum. ISU falls to 2-2 on the season and the Gophers improve to 2-0. The Gophers ended their four-game losing streak to the Cyclones.

"The story of our team right now is, simply put, inconsistency," ISU head coach Greg McDermott said. "We show signs of what we're capable of offensively, but we have a hard time sustaining it. At times, we play pretty well defensively, but can't sustain it over an extended period of time."

Iowa State jumped out to an early 10-4 lead thanks to seven quick points from Craig Brackins. Minnesota then evened the game at 12-12 with 11:25 left in the first period. Spencer Tollackson tallied eight of Gopher's first 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the floor.

The Gophers' pressure defense gave ISU fits, forcing the Cyclones into turnovers while taking an 18-16 lead with 6:45 remaining in the first half. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Jamal Abu-Shamala and McKenzie gave Minnesota a 30-22 lead, but Brackins once again answered with two-straight baskets to stop the Gopher run. Brackins was a virtual one-man show in the first half, scoring 17 of ISU's 28 points as the Gophers held a 32-28 lead at the break.

ISU promptly erased the four-point halftime deficit by going on a 9-1 run to take a 37-33 lead with 17:10 left in the second half. Bryan Petersen drilled a trey and Diante Garrett converted a steal into a fast-break lay-in to cap the rally.

Minnesota retook the lead (44-42) on a McKenzie jumper with 10:23 remaining. Another McKenzie 3-pointer and two free-throws by Dan Coleman put the Gophers up by four points (50-46) with 7:49 left in the game. A Coleman bucket in the lane and a trey by McKenzie padded the Gopher lead to 55-46 with 6:41 left in the game.

After Minnesota mounted its biggest lead of the game at 57-47 with 6:08 left, the Cyclones scored six-straight points to cut the deficit to 57-53 with 4:23 remaining. Jiri Hubalek and Brackins had a pair of buckets in the run. However, McKenzie hit another trey with 2:54 left to put the game away. McKenzie is now 17-of-31 from the 3-point line in his career against Iowa State. Tollackson tallied 21 points to lead the Gophers.

Brackins tallied a career-high 23 points, tying for the 16th-best scoring output by a freshman in school history and the most points by a freshman since Curtis Stinson scored 32 against Rutgers in an NIT Semifinal in 2004. Hubalek added 11 rebounds, his eighth double-digit rebounding effort in his career. The Cyclones committed a season-low 13 turnovers.

ISU is back in action next week, playing host to UNI on Nov. 27.

Game Notes
- Craig Brackins tallied a career-high 23 points.
- His 23 points ties for the 16th-best output by a freshman in school history and is the most points by a freshman since March 30, 2004 when Curtis Stinson scored 32 in an NIT Semifinal against Rutgers.
- Brackins has scored in double figures in three of four games this season.
- Rahshon Clark tallied 13 points...Clark has been in double figures in scoring in three of four games this season.
- Clark tallied two steals...he now moves to No. 12 on the ISU all-time steal list with 124 career thefts.
- Jiri Hubalek tallied 11 rebounds, his second double-digit rebounding effort of the season and eighth of his career.
- ISU is now 11-18 all-time vs. Minnesota.
- ISU was down at the half for the first time this season (32-28).
- Greg McDermott lost his first November game at home.
- ISU committed a season-low 13 turnovers.
- ISU was outrebounded for the second consecutive game, 41-34.
- Lawrence McKenzie is now 17-of-31 from 3-point range (54.8 percent) in his career vs. Iowa State.
- ISU shot a season-low 40 percent from the field.

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Team Stats

Craig Brackins

Rahshon Clark

Diante Garrett

Bryan Petersen

Players Mentioned

Craig Brackins

Rahshon Clark

Rahshon Clark

Diante Garrett

Jiri Hubalek

Jiri Hubalek

Bryan Petersen

Sponsors

Iowa State University Athletics