No. 2 Baylor Slips Past Iowa State
By Chad Conine, The Sports Xchange
WACO, Texas — All rankings and other games aside, No. 2 Baylor had to make a shot to fend off Iowa State.
Guard Manu Lecomte nailed the clutch basket the Bears needed to outlast the Cyclones, 65-63, on Wednesday night at the Ferrell Center.
With the game clock running under 15 seconds and the shot clock down to its last couple of ticks, Lecomte penetrated the Iowa State defense and lofted a shot over the outstretched arm of Iowa State guard Matt Thomas from about 10 feet near the baseline.
Lecomte’s shot fell through the hoop with eight seconds left and proved to be the winner.
“I could’ve hit (forward Johnathan Motley) on the post. I had Thomas on me, so I thought I could drive by him,” Lecomte said. “I mean, point guards got to have floaters.”
Cyclones guard Monte Morris took a baseline jumper from 15 feet as time expired, but it came up short.
Forward Jo Lual-Acuil scored 15 points to lead Baylor, Motley added 13 and guard Jake Lindsey added 10.
Guard Nazareth Mitrou-Long scored 17 points to lead Iowa State, Morris added 12 and guard Deonte Burton had 11.
Iowa State coach Steve Prohm expressed frustration during his postgame press conference that the officials stopped the game after Lecomte’s shot to check the time on the clock. Prohm said his team was in a flow in transition and had already called a play.
“By rule, once the ball clears the net, the clock should stop,” game official Joe DeRosa said. “I had definite knowledge that it ran forward after the ball cleared the net, so we kill it. We ended up putting four-tenths of a second back on the close to 8.6.”
Even so, Long said the Cyclones (9-4, 1-1 Big 12) got a good shot.
“We’re fine with Monte having an isolation situation,” Long said. “He didn’t make it tonight. He makes those shots. He was big down the stretch for us. A tough one at the end.”
Baylor (14-0, 2-0) hosts Oklahoma State on Saturday. If the Bears can defeat the Cowboys, they’re in line to move to the top of the college hoops rankings after No. 1 Villanova lost to Butler on Wednesday.
But Baylor coach Scott Drew said that’s not the motivation going into the weekend.
“You’re so focused in the conference,” Drew said. “Our goal is not the ranking. Our goal is like every team to win a Big 12 championship. Would it be nice to be ranked No. 1, everybody would like that. The end of the year No. 1 means a lot more and that’s what we’re trying to work for.”
The Cyclones went ahead 61-55 when Morris hit a jumper with 5:33 left, but the Bears finished on a 10-2 run.
“It really shouldn’t have come down to that last possession,” Prohm said. “I mean, Lecomte made a tough shot, but we had some opportunities to make some plays and we didn’t make them. We need to stay in attack mode.”
Iowa State went on an 8-2 run early in the second half to take a 45-40 lead when guard Deonte Burton hit a jumper in the lane with 14:10 left.
The Cyclones led until they fell into a two-minute drought, which Baylor converted into a 6-0 mini-run. The Bears regained the lead when forward Terry Maston hit a jumper from point-blank range to put Baylor in front 53-52 with 9:25 remaining.
The game featured seven ties and nine lead changes.
Although Iowa State’s four-guard lineup scrapped admirably with a much bigger Baylor team, the Bears still got the shots they wanted as they scored 40 points in the paint and won the rebounding battle, 47-28.
Baylor used its size advantage in the frontcourt early in the game to build an 11-3 lead after Lual-Acuil had two dunks and Motley added one.
Iowa State answered with a 6-2 run later in the half. Mitrou-Long hit a 3-pointer and Morris capped the surge with a jumper that tied it at 16.
The Cyclones consistently used the 3-point shot to reel in Baylor leads in the first half.
The Bears pulled ahead 28-21 on a jumper by Lecomte. But Cyclones guards Nick Weiler-Babb and Thomas hit treys on back-to-back trips down the floor, cutting the Baylor lead to one.
Iowa State was 8 of 15 from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes. Conversely, Baylor made just 2 of 12 from 3-point range.
Even so, Lual-Acuil scored 10 points in the first half to help the Bears take a 37-36 lead to the break.
Baylor outrebounded Iowa State 26-18 in the first 20 minutes and held the Cyclones to 39 percent shooting from the field.
