No. 10 Iowa State’s defense smothers Cincinnati in 68-59 win

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CINCINNATI (AP) — No. 10 Iowa State forced 25 turnovers and had 12 steals in a smothering 68-59 win over Cincinnati on Tuesday night.

Curtis Jones and Tamin Lipsey each had 15 points to lead the Cyclones (19-5, 8-3 Big 12), who turned the Bearcats’ turnovers into 26 points.

“That’s what we do, that’s our identity, regardless of who we’re playing,” Cyclones head coach T.J. Otzelberger said. “We take a lot of pride in pressuring the ball and trying to cause teams to play faster than normal.”

Jizzle James had 16 points and Simas Lukosius scored 15 for Cincinnati (15-9, 4-7). Dan Skillings Jr. had 13 points and 11 rebounds.

The Bearcats have lost five of their past seven games.

“Obviously, the turnovers were the biggest factor in the game,” Bearcats head coach Wes Miller said. “The onus has to go to me. We go out there and turn it over 25 times. We’ve got to do a better job as coaches. We tried to simulate it in practice, but obviously didn’t do a good enough job.”

Iowa State forced eight turnovers and had three steals in the first six minutes of the game. That helped the Cyclones overcome a scoring drought of nearly four minutes.

“Coach talked about starting the game and the half fast,” Cyclones forward Robert Jones said. “We were just relying on our teammates. That’s the biggest thing. We played together and had each other’s backs.”

Robert Jones scored 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting as the Cyclones outscored Cincinnati 36-14 in the paint.

“That was a huge point of emphasis to get in there any way possible,” Otzelberger said.

Jones, who averaged 14.2 points off the bench in his previous six games, hit a 3-pointer during an 11-2 run to close the first half. Iowa State led 34-26 at halftime.

As the turnovers continued to mount for the Bearcats early in the second half, the Cyclones extended their run to 18-2 on Keshon Gilbert’s 3-pointer to make the score 41-26. Gilbert finished with 12 points.

Cincinnati rallied from a 13-point deficit before losing to No. 5 Houston 67-62 on Saturday. The Cyclones’ defense prevented a similar scare.

“We knew coming in here it was going to be a tough environment and we were going to have to be at our best,” Otzelberger said.

Cincinnati leads the all-time series 4-3. It was the schools’ first meeting since 2016.

TOUGH SLATE

The Bearcats are struggling against a daunting Big 12 schedule, but need to recover quickly to keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive.

“In the last three days we lost to the fifth-ranked team in the country and the tenth-ranked team in the country,” Miller said. “If you get your butt kicked, embrace it and learn from it. I hate losing. But there’s an opportunity to learn from everything.”

BIG PICTURE

Iowa State: The Cyclones average nearly 11 steals per game, nearly twice their opponents’ average. They average more than 22 points off turnovers.

Cincinnati: The Bearcats need Viktor Lakhin to get back on track. Lakhin, the team’s second-leading scorer, went scoreless on Tuesday. He has gone scoreless three times in the last four games and only scored four points at Texas Tech.

UP NEXT

Iowa State: Hosts Texas Tech on Saturday.

Cincinnati: Visits UCF on Saturday.

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AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball