No. 18 Iowa State took an early lead and never looked back in a one-sided 94-59 win over Northwestern on Sunday afternoon. The Wildcats’ home loss follows another preseason loss to Illinois State
In a rematch of NU’s 80-72 exhibition loss to the Cyclones last year, the Wildcats struggled to respond to ISU’s smothering defense and red-hot shooting. Northwestern never held a lead in the match and trailed by as much as 32 points late in the first half before piecing together a respectable second half.
Jake West led Northwestern with 21 points on 7-for-16 shooting, along with four assists and two rebounds. Angelo Ciaravino (13 points) and Jack Karasinski (11 points) were the only other Wildcats to manage double-digit scoring. The Wildcats shot 32.8% from the field and 23.3% from beyond the arc.
Iowa State’s Ryan Prather Jr. led all scorers with 25 points, including six made triples. Tamin Lipsey added 14 points while Jaquan Johnson and former Wildcat Tre Singleton each scored 10 points. The ‘Cats surrendered a lot of open shots to the red and yellow throughout the game, allowing the Cyclones to shoot 53% from the field and 50% from three.
Chris Collins rolled out the same starting lineup that opened the game for Northwestern in its loss to Illinois State: sophomore guard West, graduate student guard LA Pratt, junior guard Ciaravino, graduate student wing Karasinski and redshirt junior forward Luke McEldon.
For Iowa State, Preseason All-Big 12 guard Lipsey started alongside Jamarion Batemon, Johnson, Singleton and Buchanan.
Iowa State quickly jumped out to a 5-0 lead less than two minutes into the game, with Lipsey accounting for three early points. Ciaravino responded with a mid-range jumper to give Northwestern its first points of the day, but Iowa State quickly stretched its lead to 11-4 with under five minutes elapsed.
NU looked uncomfortable at times dealing with Iowa State’s gritty defense. The Wildcats couldn’t respond to the Cyclones’ quick defensive rotations and physicality, often settling for low-percentage perimeter looks. Before long, a pair of Singleton free throws pushed Iowa State’s lead to double digits with 12:51 to play.
Just over a minute later, a long-range Lipsey transition three put Iowa State up 19, punctuating a 15-0 Cyclones scoring run. With 11:31 remaining in the half, the ‘Cats were already down 26-7, having missed nine consecutive field goals and scored zero points over the last 4:21.
At 10:28, the ‘Cats finally ended their drought with a Ciaravino layup over a Cyclone defender. For a few minutes, Iowa State’s offense slowed down, but the Wildcats continued to struggle against the Cyclones’ aggressive defense and remained down 29-10 with under eight minutes left in the half.
The Cyclones then turned on the jets for a 7-0 run, with a three-point shot from Ryan Prather Jr. giving them a 36-10 lead with 6:31 remaining. ISU continued to wreak havoc defensively, bothering the ballhandler, going over on screens, and disrupting passing lanes, while not allowing Northwestern to get any free shots. With four minutes left, Buchanan converted an and-one layup to give Iowa State a 30-point FIRST HALF lead.
Jack Karasinski’s driving layup ended another scoring drought that lasted 3:43, bringing the score to 43-13. NU’s West and ISU’s Dominyka Pleta traded free throws in the half’s final minutes, before Karasinski ended the first half with a buzzer-beater three-pointer – Northwestern’s second successful three-point attempt in 15 tries.
The ‘Cats actually closed the half with their first real scoring run of the game — a 7-2 run built off a 3:47 ISU field goal drought. However, Iowa State still held a big 45-18 advantage, built primarily off strong performances from two reserves: Robert Morris transfer Prather Jr., who had 13 points on 4-for-5 FG shooting and 3-for-4 three-point shooting, and Pleata, who had eight points on 3-for-6 FG shooting. Meanwhile, NU’s stat sheet leaders at the break were its returners Angelo Ciaravino and Jake West, who had six and five points, respectively.
The ‘Cats had been dominated by the Cyclones in almost every major team statistic. Most notably, Collins’ squad got straight-up outshot, shooting 19.4% from the field, 13.3% from three and 44.4% on free throws, while Iowa State shot 51.7% from the field, 55.6% from three and 71.4% from the charity stripe. NU also got outrebounded 26-18 and conceded six ISU offensive boards.
Northwestern opened the second half going on an 8-2 run, capped by a West three-point shot, to bring the lead down to 21 points. Iowa State got to the line more frequently than before – the Wildcats committed four fouls in as many minutes – which allowed Iowa State to rebound from a slow start to the period.
Throughout the final twenty minutes, West was a bright spot for the ‘Cats. He began to find his rhythm as the second half wore on, first converting a midrange jumper before firing a step-back three and finding an and-one layup. The sophomore returner would go on to have 16 second-half points.
This half was more back-and-forth than Iowa State’s dominant first half, with the Wildcats shooting a much more efficient 48.1% from the field and 33% from the perimeter. However, Iowa State still looked comfortable slashing through NU’s defense and continued to come up with a lot of easy driving layups. A transition layup from Lipsey put Iowa State up 72-45 with under 10 minutes left in the contest.
For the next several minutes, Iowa State and NU traded buckets. However, the back-and-forth wouldn’t last forever, as Iowa State launched a 13-3 run with less than four minutes remaining in the second half, led by a pair of jumpers from Singleton to put Iowa State up 88-53 with 2:34 left.
The rest of the game was a formality as Iowa State rounded out its big win over NU. Despite a late Karasinski dunk, Northwestern closed out the game with falling 94-59.
Northwestern will return to action when it faces Binghamton on Nov. 2 on Big Ten Plus at home to start the season. Tip-off will be at 7 p.m. CDT.