Kansas City
Iowa State
'Roos Battle No. 14 Cyclones, But Fall 73-56
12/9/2014 9:03:00 PM | Men's Basketball
(Ames, Iowa) - The UMKC men's basketball squad outscored No. 14 Iowa State 43-40 over the final 27 minutes on Tuesday in Ames, and even held the Cyclones 12 points below their average in a 73-56 loss.
“After the third four-minute segment, I thought we really competed from that point on,” Head Coach Kareem Richardson said. “We didn't execute perfectly on both ends, but the effort was tremendous and the guys were sharing the ball a little bit better.”
The Cyclones (6-1) jumped out to a quick start on the 'Roos (3-7), flipping turnovers into points. They went up 17-4 in the opening 5:27, and pushed that 13-point lead to as many as 20 with 7:28 on the clock. The 'Roos caught their stride after that, going on a 7-0 run, followed by an 8-0 rally by the Cyclones and another 7-0 run by UMKC to close the half.
Missouri-Kansas City got a jumper from freshman Collin Jennings with 1:13 left in the period, making it a 41-27 ISU lead at the half. The Cyclones shot 56 percent in the half, led by 14 points from Bryce Dejean-Jones, while UMKC got six points each from Noah Knight and Frank Williams. The 'Roos hit 44 percent of their shots, but had nine turnovers that turned into 16 ISU points.
The final stanza was much more tightly contested, with UMKC holding ISU to only 38 percent from the floor. The 'Roos even cut into the Cyclone lead, getting it down to as little as 11 at the 12:19 mark on a pair of Deshon Taylor free throws. ISU answered though, and pushed it back up to 20 on a dunk by Dejean-Jones with 6:51 to play.
UMKC kept fighting though, and managed to get it down to 13 again with 1:38 on the clock on a layup by Williams.
Jennings finished his night with 11 points, setting a career-high. Williams led the 'Roos with 14 points and Martez Harrison scored 10. Darius Austin picked up six rebounds to lead a short-handed UMKC front line, as leading rebounder Shayok Shayok did not play due to injury.
Dejean-Jones had a game-high 22 for Iowa State, while Monte Morris picked up 13. ISU held a 38-25 rebound advantage in the contest.
The game closes out a stretch of eight road outings in the first ten contests of the season for UMKC, who now come home for three straight at home. The stand gets going on Saturday at 2:05 p.m. against Omaha. The game will be televised on the American Sports Network.
