On Saturday afternoon in Tempe, Arizona, two Big 12 teams clashed in an exciting back-and-forth matchup.
Bobby Hurley and the Arizona State Sun Devils welcomed T.J. Otzelberger and the Iowa State Cyclones to Desert Financial Arena for the eighth game of the Big 12 regular season. The pair traded blows through the contest and late into the second half, which eventually led to Iowa State pulling away for their 17th win of the season.
With that, here are the top three takeaways from Iowa State’s 76-61 win over the Sun Devils.
Mr. Jones
While it’s no secret that the Iowa State Basketball team isn’t operating at full strength, one player that the crew can consistently count on to show up is senior guard Curtis Jones.
The Minnesota native went ballistic in the 15-point win, scoring a season-high 33 points. Jones has now scored 15+ points in each of his last five outings and 13 times this season. He helped lead a late comeback for Iowa State, as the Cyclones outscored Arizona State 43-21 in the second half. With five minutes to go, Iowa State went on a 19-3 scoring run to seal the deal.
In the end, Iowa State took care of business and advanced to 7-1 in league play.
Second Half Woes Continue
Bobby Hurley and the Arizona State Sun Devils continue to be plagued by poor showings in the second half. The group led Iowa State 40-33 at the break before Iowa State got it together and responded accordingly. The Sun Devils were outscored by 22 points in the second half alone, dropping from 40 points scored in the first 20 minutes to just 21 points scored in the final 20.
The box score was reminiscent of ASU’s 74-55 loss to Kansas on January 8th, where they led the Jayhawks by six at halftime. Hurley’s squad led Bill Self and the Jayhawks 42-36 before managing just 13 second-half points. Arizona State could not adjust to Kansas’ second-half pressure and wound up losing the contest by nearly 20 points.
This was the case once again on Saturday vs. No. 3 Iowa State.
The Hunted
While a 15-point win may not read like a close contest in the box score, the matchup between ISU and ASU was closer than expected. With five minutes remaining, Arizona State actually led the Cyclones and had been clashing with them, blow for blow.
Shortly after, the floodgates opened, and Iowa State reminded the nation of its No. 3 rank. Still, it does call attention toward a unique situation for this Cyclone squad: the team can no longer be the hunters. They are now the hunted in the eyes of everyone.
Iowa State has been one of the Big 12’s most successful programs under T.J. Otzelberger over the past few years, but even that doesn’t do this 2024-25 team justice. They are one of the nation’s best college basketball teams and have the ability to take down anyone. Though Arizona State may not be near the top half of the Big 12 Conference, they took it to the Cyclones and showed just how hard they would work to compete with the highest-ranked team in the league.
