MILWAUKEE — After Iowa State basketball‘s final regular-season game, a road win over Kansas State, sophomore Milan Momcilovic sifted through different bracketology projections.
He took note of the Cyclones’ seeding, possible matchups and potential NCAA Tournament opening weekend destinations.
At the time, various bracketologists predicted that Iowa State would be everywhere but Milwaukee, which is just a short 20-minute drive away from his hometown of Pewaukee.
Once Iowa State learned its NCAA Tournament fate on Selection Sunday, Momcilovic was pleasantly surprised that he and his teammates were headed to Wisconsin.
On Friday afternoon, he capitalized on the moment in his return home. Momcilovic had a game-high 20 points to lead the 3-seeded Cyclones to a March Madness opening-round win over Atlantic Sun champion and 14-seed Lipscomb, 82-55.
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Momcilovic racked up 17 of his 20 points in the first half. He shot 8-of-14 overall, including a 4-of-8 clip from the 3-point line.
“I just do what I do every day, my daily habits, and don’t get too high just because I’m back at home and a lot of fans are watching me,” Momcilovic said. “So, just have that same mindset and good things will happen. Obviously, came out strong, knocked my first couple and my game started going.
“I think it was a home court advantage for our team in general just because Iowa State is close to Milwaukee, but obviously yeah for me, 20 minutes away in Pewaukee, this is the closest game we’ve had since I’ve been here in Iowa State, so it’s cool to have all the fans come and glad I could show out for them.”
Curtis Jones added 17 points off the bench. Nate Heise had nine points, on 4-of-4 shooting, and six rebounds. Joshua Jefferson finished with 10 points, eight rebounds, eight assists, three steals and two blocks.
Tamin Lipsey had 10 points on 5-of-9 shooting in his first game back since suffering a groin injury in the Big 12 Tournament second-round win over Cincinnati. He also had three boards, and four assists.
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Lipscomb lived up to its billing early on, thriving at the 3-point line. After missing its first two long-range attempts as a team, it started to warm up from the perimeter.
The Bisons made four of their next five 3-point attempts, with Jacob Ognacevic and Joe Anderson sinking back-to-back 3s to give them a 16-15 lead with 11:37 remaining in the first half. The shooting surge prompted Iowa State to call a timeout.
“We knew they were going to have their runs,” Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger said. “We knew they could score in bunches the way they shoot the basketball and they play for one another. Fortunately, our guys had great poise during that poise during that moment, there wasn’t panic, we didn’t rush or do anything out of character. Then Milan, truthfully, he just took over the game. You could see his confidence going.”
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The Cyclones refocused defensively, while Momcilovic helped spark a 22-5 run on the other end of the court.
Momcilovic supplied 14 points during the game-changing run before Jones ended the almost eight-minute surge with a layup off of a Cade Kelderman steal to give the Cyclones a 37-21 lead with 2:44 left in the first half.
Iowa State held a 40-24 halftime lead.
The Cyclones’ lead never fell into single digits for the remainder of the game.
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Despite the big lead, defensive intensity didn’t slow down. Iowa State led by as many as 33 points with 6:05 remaining, after a Lipsey layup closed a 15-5 Cyclone run to make it 71-38.
“They play with their five men on the perimeter for the most part, so the physicality has to come with guarding the dribble one-on-one, staying out of rotations, being physical when you guard the dribble, and then walling up and making sure they have to finish through contact at the rim,” Otzelberger said of his team’s physicality. “On the other end, the physical part comes with driving the ball with force, sealing, getting on the offensive glass and those were the areas of emphasis we knew we would have to be at our best today and really compete. I felt like our guys kept the focus on those areas for the full 40 minutes.”
Iowa State emptied its bench in the winning effort, with every player getting a piece of the action.
Ognacevic, the Atlantic Sun Player of the Year, finished with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Gyasi Powell added 11 points for Lipscomb.
The Bisons shot 19-of-51 (37.3%) for the game. Iowa State held them to just 8-of-28 (28.6%) from beyond the arc.
The Cyclones improved to 25-9 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Iowa State will either play No. 6 seed Ole Miss or No. 11 seed North Carolina on Sunday. Tip-off time is still to be determined.
Eugene Rapay covers Iowa State athletics for the Des Moines Register. Contact Eugene at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @erapay5.
