L.J. Cryer scored 28 points and Milos Uzan matched his season best of 19 points to lead No. 5 Houston to a 68-59 home win over No. 8 Iowa State in Big 12 play on Saturday.
Cryer made 5 of 7 attempts from long range, going 11-of-17 from the field overall. Uzan made 7 of 10 attempts from the field and went 3 of 5 from behind the arc. Cryer (16) and Uzan (14) combined for 30 of Houston’s 34 first-half points as the Cougars (23-4, 15-1 Big 12) pulled out to a 12-point lead at halftime.
Iowa State (21-6, 11-5) was without its two leading scorers, as guards Curtis Jones Jr. (illness) and Keshon Gilbert (muscle strain) were unavailable. Milan Momcilovic led the way with 16 points, while Nate Heise added 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting.
Tamin Lipsey finished 11 points and broke the school’s record for steals early in the second half. Lipsey had 226 steals and surpassed former Iowa State standout Monte Morris (225 from 2013-17),
Iowa State nearly fought all the way back with an 18-3 run in the second half, trimming Houston’s lead to 48-47 on Heise’s 3-pointer with 8:10 remaining. Houston immediately threatened to pull away with a prompt 5-0 but the Cyclones responded again, cutting the lead to 58-56 on a pair of Momcilovic free throws with 5:24 remaining.
From that point, Houston made seven of its last nine field goals and outscored Iowa State 10-3 to secure the nine-point win. Cryer led the way with 12 points in the second half, while Emmanuel Sharpe scored all 11 of his points in the frame.
Houston took control of the game with a 12-0 run that began midway through the first half, highlighted by consecutive 3-pointers from Cryer. Houston held Iowa State scoreless for over six minutes and without a field goal for over nine minutes, leading by as many as 15 points in the frame. Iowa State made just two 2-point field goals in the first half but it was able to mitigate the damage to some degree by going 4-of-11 from beyond the arc.
Houston made 25 of 47 attempts from the field (53.2 percent) and shot 10 of 17 (58.8 percent) from 3-point range. Iowa State made 18 field goals on 46 attempts (39.1 percent) and finished 8 of 20 from beyond the arc (40 percent).
Iowa State’s Joshua Jefferson racked up seven steals.
–Field Level Media
