Iowa State Defeats Baylor in Big 12 Tournament Semifinal
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Iowa State rolled past Baylor, 76-62, in the semifinals of the Big 12 Men’s Basketball Tournament at T-Mobile Center on Friday.
Iowa State (26-7) will play Houston in the Big 12 Championship game at 5 p.m. on Saturday. Houston beat Texas Tech earlier on Friday.
Houston is seeking its first Big 12 Tournament title in its first year in the conference. Iowa State is seeking its first Big 12 Tournament title since 2019.
Baylor (23-10) will wait until Sunday to find out its seeding for the NCAA Tournament. Baylor has never won the Big 12 Tournament and has not been to the championship game since 2014.
Baylor won the two team’s only meeting in Waco, Texas, 70-68, on Feb. 3.
Iowa State controlled the game from the outset and had an eight-point lead at halftime. The Cyclones only built on that lead to start the second half with a 7-1 start, propelled by Milam Momcilovic’s corner 3-pointer as Iowa State took a 42-28 lead less than three minutes into the half.
The Cyclones only gathered more steam from there, as they started the half on a 17-3 run and went up 52-30 after a 3-pointer by Curtis Jones, which was Iowa State’s eighth 3-pointer of the game.
The Cyclones remained in control in part because of what their defense did to Baylor freshman — and Big 12 Freshman of the Year — Ja’Kobe Walter. He didn’t score until the eight-minute mark of the second half and scored just three points.
Keshon Gilbert led the Cyclones with 20 points. Jones had 13 points, while Momcilovic had 11 points. Hason Ward and Tamin Lipsey each had 10 points. The Cyclones made 10 3-pointers for the game.
Baylor’s Jalen Bridges led with 20 points, while Yves Missi had 14 points and Caleb Lohner came off the bench to score 12 points. Bridges and Missi had double-doubles with 12 rebounds and 11 rebounds, respectively. While RayJ Dennis only had seven points, he had 11 assists.
Iowa State started the game with three 3-pointers and took an early 9-1 edge, but the gap didn’t last long. Baylor had it down to 19-15 by the under-8 time out.
But a flagrant one foul on Baylor’s Jayden Nunn seemed to spark the Cyclones again with five minutes left. Lipsey drained two free throws, Gilbert hit a 3-pointer and Ward connected on a jumper to push the Cyclones’ lead to 28-17.
Bridges hit a 3-pointer to stop Iowa State’s run, though Jones answered immediately after that with a 3-pointer of his own for the Cyclones.
By halftime Iowa State had a 35-27 lead in spite of missing six of their last seven shots of the half. Baylor’s two-minute scoring drought to end the half prevented the Bears from cutting further into the lead.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
