LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Kentucky Wildcats blew past the Iowa State Cyclones to advance to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in Atlanta next week. UK (34-2) defeated Iowa State (23-11) 87-71 Saturday night at the KFC Yum! Center.
“I’m proud, really proud of the entire team, but what I like is they competed,” UK head coach John Calipari said. “They played smart. They knew what we had to take away from Iowa State and they did it.”
Iowa State scored the first bucket of the game, but the Cats scored seven straight points to force a timeout for the Cyclones.
With UK holding a 9-4 lead, the Cyclones strung together two more baskets to close the gap to 11-8, and Iowa State sophomore forward Royce White was fouled on the play to close the deficit to two.
White had been the Cyclones’ leader in scoring for the game until fouling out late in the second half. He recorded 23 points and nine rebounds.
“When he wasn’t backing down, we tried to use our strength in our legs and force him out,” freshman forward Anthony Davis said. “He likes to catch the ball on the mid-post instead of backing all the way down and face up and try to beat you off the dribble.”
A 3-pointer and long 2-pointer by senior guard Darius Miller gave the Cats an 18-11 lead immediately followed by another three by freshman forward Kyle Wiltjer to extend UK’s lead to 10 points. A jumper by freshman forward Marquis Teague finished off a 10-0 run for the Cats.
Teague scored a career-high 24 points along with seven assists and four rebounds.
“I felt more like myself tonight,” Teague said. “I was more comfortable out there. Things were just going good for me tonight.”
Teague continued with two minutes left in the half to dunk, shoot a mid-range jumper and score a layup on a fast break to give UK a 36-26 lead with 59 seconds to play.
The Cats ended the half leading 38-27 after two free throws from Davis.
The Cats were scoreless in the first two-and-a-half minutes of the second half while the Cyclones went on a 7-0 run to shorten the lead 38-34.
“We knew they were gonna make a run,” Davis said. “That’s what all great teams do, so we got in the huddle. Coach Cal told us we’ll be fine.”
The two squads battled the next two possessions, with a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Doron Lamb and a layup and-one from Iowa State’s White.
The Cyclones then scored back-to-back baskets to tie the score at 42 with 15:59 to play, but UK answered with a 6-0 run to lead 48-42 with 14:25 left.
Another Miller 3-pointer gave the Cats a 53-44 advantage with 12:38 to play and brought UK fans to a roar.
“He played great,” Teague said. “He made great rebounds when we needed them, he knocked down big shots for us that we needed. He just played with a killer mentality tonight.”
After one technical foul for each team, Teague managed to sink another 3-pointer to propel the Cats to a 64-46 lead with 9:46 in the game.
UK shot 6-for-7 from 3-point range to gain a comfortable lead late in the half and led by 20 with 7:11 to play at 72-52.
“You take your hat off to them,” Iowa State head coach Fred Hoiberg said. “They hit tough shots. Hit shots with the shot clock running down.”
The Cats then easily cruised to advance to the NCAA Sweet 16, leading by as many as 24 points.
UK will have a rematch with Indiana, its first loss of the season back in December, on Friday.
The Cats are looking at it not as an opportunity to advance to the next round and to see how the two teams have improved throughout the course of the season.
“We talked about how we could get a chance to play them again, but we weren’t really worried about it,” Teague said. “We focused on the games we already knew we had to play. We want to take it one game at a time.”