Big 12 First Round Recap

No. 8 Iowa State 78, No. 9 Kansas State 64
This game was never really close. The Cyclones took control from the get-go and advanced easily due to three key points. The first was a suffocating zone defense, which forced K-State into shooting too many threes. The Wildcats, instead of trying to penetrate the zone, threw up miss after miss, and finished 3-of-18 from beyond the arc.

“We were very active in the zone today,” ISU coach Wayne Morgan said.

The second key was the ineffectiveness of KSU forward Jeremiah Massey. He was averaging 15.1 points and 8.0 rebounds per game coming into the tournament, but it didn’t happen for him today. ISU constantly drove at Massey to get him in foul trouble – he had three fouls by halftime and fouled out with 8:26 remaining in the game.

“We absolutely take (three points from Massey),” Morgan said. “Our game plan was to get to him.”

Finally, even if K-State had been able to overcome those obstacles, the Wildcats had Curtis Stinson to deal with. The consensus Big 12 freshman of the year scored 24 points on 11-of-13 shooting, and added 5 rebounds and 4 assists. This was an especially impressive performance considering Stinson had suffered a hand injury in the last week of the regular season.

“It’s that time of year,” ISU forward Jared Homan said. “Everybody’s got some bumps and bruises, it’s just a matter of whether you can play through them. Curtis did that today.”

Jake Sullivan added 21 points for the Cyclones and Homan had 14 points and 14 rebounds. Tim Ellis led KSU with 21 points and Jarrett Hart scored 14.

Iowa State took a 27-13 lead early and never really looked back. The closest K-State ever got was within eight.

“They out-played us, out-hustled us and out-coached us,” KSU coach Jim Wooldridge said. “We couldn’t get into an offensive flow, so I was disappointed.”

Player of the game: Curtis Stinson: 24 points, 11-of-13 shooting, 5 rebounds, 4 assists

No. 7 Oklahoma 63, No. 10 Nebraska 59
In a fairly ugly game, Oklahoma came back with a big second-half run and then hung on to beat Nebraska in a game the Sooners desperately needed to win.

Freshman Drew Lavender scored 16 of his 19 points in the second half and OU started the second stanza on a 30-9 run that extended to 37-13 to go up 59-48. Jason Detrick added 16 points.

Nebraska jumped out to a 19-9 lead and was ahead 35-22 at halftime. The Sooners shot 8-of-32 in the first half, including 2-of-10 from three-point range. But in the second half, it looked like the players switched jerseys. OU shot 55 percent from the field after the break while Nebraska managed only 28 percent.

NU made a late run to get back within 61-57 with just less than two minutes left, but failed to capitalize on several missed OU free throws by missing some lay-ups. The Huskers were led by Corey Simms’ 14 points. John Turek scored NU’s first eight points, but finished with only 10.

Player of the game: Drew Lavender – Another freshman player of the game. Lavender led the Sooners’ second-half comeback with 16 points after halftime. His biggest shot came with about 11 minutes to play, a three that put the Sooners ahead 44-40.

No. 6 Missouri 74, No. 11 Texas A&M 68
The Aggies played hard in Melvin Watkins’ last game as their head coach, but in the end not even that emotion could give Texas A&M a Big 12 win this year. MU shot a Big 12 Tournament record 60 percent from the field, while A&M only managed 38 percent. The Aggies stayed in the game by collecting 24 offensive rebounds while MU had only 3.

Missouri led 38-33 at halftime but TAMU took the lead 53-51 with just less than nine minutes to play. The Aggies were still within 69-66 with two minutes to go but didn’t score again until there were only 4 seconds left.

Four Mizzou players scored in double figures, led by Jimmy McKinney with 20 points, including seven in the last three and a half minutes. Travon Bryant added 16 points and Arthur Johnson had 14. A&M was led by Antoine Wright with 22 points. He scored 14 of the Aggies’ first 18 points.