No. 4 Iowa State's chances at a Big 12 regular-season title and No. 1 seed in the NCAA men's basketball tournament suffered a setback withan 82-73 lossto No. 16 Texas Tech on Saturday.
The Red Raiders won their third straight game sincelosing star forward JT Toppinto a torn ACL in a loss to Arizona State on Feb. 17. Texas Tech shot 58% from the floor and 48% (14-for-29) on 3-pointers.
Donovan Atwell led the Red Raiders with 18 points, scoring all of his points from the 3-point line. Christian Anderson followed with 14 points and 7 assists, helping boost Texas Tech's record to 12-4 in the Big 12 (and 22-7 overall).
Texas Tech appeared to have the game in hand, holding a 79-62 lead with 1:35 remaining in regulation after two consecutive baskets by Anderson. However, Iowa State followed with a late surge, going on an 11-0 run. The Cyclones were helped by a bad pass from Anderson, leading to a turnover and Milan Momcilovic 3-pointer. That cut the deficit to 79-73 with 42 seconds left in the game.
On the Red Raiders' ensuing possession, Jaylen Wells' pass was picked off by Joshua Jefferson, giving Iowa State a chance to close to within three points. But Momcilovic missed a 3-point try, and Texas Tech finished off the win making three free throws off Iowa State fouls.
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Jefferson scored 22 points for the Cyclones, along with 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 steals. Momcilovic added 20 points, hitting 5-of-9 3-pointers.
With the defeat, Iowa State's record dropped to 11-5 in the Big 12 and 24-5 overall. The Cyclones could conceivably still play a role in deciding the conference title, facing Arizona on Monday. However, playing spoiler is surely not what T.J. Otzelberger's squad had in mind.
Last Saturday, Iowa State was the No. 4 teamamong the top 16 releasedby the NCAA tournament selection committee. Since those rankings were released, the Cyclones have lost to BYU and Texas Tech. That may have opened an opportunity for Houston (24-5, 12-4 conference) to get a No. 1 NCAA tournament seed, though it came in at No. 6 in the committee's rankings.
Texas Tech may have lifted itself into a top-four finish in the conference, which would lead to a bye through the first two rounds of the Big 12 tournament and an automatic berth in the quarterfinals.
No. 2 Arizona clinched a share of the Big 12 regular-season championship on Saturday withan 84-61 winover No. 14 Kansas. The Wildcats face Iowa State and Colorado (6-10 conference) to close out their schedule and will likely be the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, which begins March 10.
