LDN - Sports

Morris leads Iowa State past Nevada

[March 17, 2017] MILWAUKEE -- It's a risky move to sit your best player -- and one of the best players in the country -- for more than five minutes in the second half of an NCAA Tournament game, but when you have as much faith in the rest of your team as Iowa State coach Steve Prohm has in his, it's a no-brainer.

And it paid off for Prohm and the Cyclones (24-10), who had to go without point guard Monte Morris for a stretch but still managed to hold off several Nevada (28-7) charges and escape with an 84-73 victory in a first-round contest at the Bradley Center.

Morris led Iowa State with 19 points and added eight rebounds and eight assists in 31 minutes of work while Deonte Burton -- playing in front of a raucous crowd in his home town -- added 14 with eight rebounds. Naz Mitrou-Long and Matt Thomas -- another Wisconsin native -- each knocked down three 3-pointers and finished with 13 points.

"We've got seniors," Prohm said. "We have guys who can really shoot and spread you out. That helps."

A 13-point halftime cushion had turned into a six-point margin for Iowa State with 11:25 to play, but with three fouls, Prohm sent Morris to the bench.

"He got that third foul quick," Prohm said. "He got a second one because he did a good job of not letting them get an uncontested basket and then his third one came and played for a couple minutes with three, and then I needed to get him out just to be safe. I was probably thinking about the eight-minute mark."

The move ultimately paid off.

The Wolf Pack (28-7) made it a four-point game on a Jordan Caroline tip-in with 9:56 left, but the Cyclones rattled off nine straight points to go up 13. Caroline would score four straight to bring the lead back down to nine when Morris entered, but the Cyclones' stand set a tone for the rest of the game.

"I know obviously I need Monte Morris on the floor," Prohm said. "But he got in there at winning time and was able to close the game for us. I thought Donovan was doing some good things for us. And then it may have went a minute or two too long. You know, it did get to 4, but fortunately Naz, Monte -- excuse me, Matt and Deonte made some big plays for us."

Nevada, which had won nine straight coming into the tournament, got 22 points from Cameron Oliver, 20 from Caroline and 16 from Marcus Marshall but made only 40 percent of its shots and was 8-for-26 from distance.

"We couldn't get over the hump," Caroline said. "We had small things, turnovers. They'd execute off our turnovers, then the foul calls happened but we tried our best to fight back and we played as hard as we possibly could.

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Iowa State Cyclones guard Monte Morris (11) celebrates during the first half of the game against the Nevada Wolf Pack in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at BMO Harris Bradley Center. Mandatory Credit: James Lang-USA TODAY Sports

"We just couldn't get over the hump."

Iowa State lived up to its billing as an offensive powerhouse, shooting 58.6 percent in the first half. The Cyclones led by as many as 15 and went into halftime up 40-27, thanks to eight points from Morris, who hit a pair of 3-pointers.

The Wolf Pack came out cold, making just nine of 30 shots while going 4-of-13 from beyond the arc. Oliver scored 10 and Caroline added eight in the opening half but Nevada couldn't slow down the Cyclones, who will face No. 4 seed Purdue Saturday evening.

"We lost to a team that's really good and was better than us tonight," Nevada coach Eric Musselman said. "I think they're the sixth most experienced team in the country and I thought in the first half, their experience really showed.

"We start three sophomores and I couldn't be prouder of the energy and effort we played with in the second half."

NOTES: The Cyclones had a heavy local presence on their roster. Deonte Burton, Donovan Jackson and Darrell Bowie are all Milwaukee natives while Matt Thomas was born and raised in Onalaska, Wis. ... Nevada had won nine straight coming into the tournament. The Wolf Pack won by an average of 15.0 points per game during the winning streak. ... Jordan Caroline finished with 20 points, eight rebounds and four assists. He's averaging 18.6 points and 10.2 rebounds over his last five contests. ... Iowa State has won 10 of its last 11 games and has advanced to the second round for the sixth time in its last seven NCAA Tournament appearances.

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