No. 3 Iowa State is confident it belongs at the top of the game after rallying to beat Iowa

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Curtis Jones knows how good the group around him really is, even if most of the attention at the top of the college basketball world lies elsewhere.

The last six minutes at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Thursday night proved that.

No. 3 Iowa State rallied from a 13-point deficit to claim an 89-80 win over Iowa on Thursday — the game was about as good as anyone could have hoped for before it came down the stretch slipped. That brings the Cyclones to 8-1 this season and conference play is just around the corner.

Although there are many other great teams, both in the Big 12 and elsewhere, Jones makes no compromises when it comes to the rankings for him and his teammates. They belong at the top.

“I don’t feel any pressure. I’m confident,” Jones said. “Yes, we are one of the best teams in the country.

“I feel like it’s visible. We have the talent, we have the personnel, we have the cohesion. I feel like we have everything we need to go far and I just have a lot of confidence in our abilities.”

Iowa State rallies to beat Iowa

Iowa gave the Cyclones just about everything it had on Thursday night. And for most of the game it looked like it was working.

The Hawkeyes, who made seven 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes, built a 13-point lead just before halftime. Every time the Cyclones fought back in the second half, Iowa responded to stay one step ahead. But unlike the Maui Invitational last month, where Iowa State suffered its only loss to Auburn, this time the Cylones held strong.

Iowa State stormed into the lead in the final six minutes of the game as Iowa went cold. The Hawkeyes only made two field goals from then on, both of which came in garbage time, and Iowa State took full advantage. It was a slow battle – it wasn’t until three minutes into the second half that they took the lead for the first time – but it secured the nine-point win.

Jones dropped a game-high 23 points off the bench for Iowa State while shooting 5 of 8 from behind the arc. Joshua Jefferson added 19 points and 10 rebounds and Dishon Jackson added 12 points.

“This is one of the best teams in the country, if not the best at the moment. We were with them for a long time,” said Iowa’s Payton Sandfort, who finished with 13 points and five rebounds in the loss. “Kudos to them for the way they played… It just speaks for itself that they were full of energy the whole game. They’ve got a lot of guys that can play, they’ve got shot makers, they’ve got rebounders, they can defend… They’re going to win a lot of games.”

How far can Iowa State actually go?

With the exception of games against Omaha and Morgan State in the coming days, head coach TJ Otzelberger is now tasked with leading the Cyclones through the best conference in basketball.

The Big 12 can ruin any team, no matter how good. Just look at Kansas last year, which started the season as the top-ranked team in the country and then lost nine of its final 18 games in conference play. But Iowa State, which currently has the best ranking in program history, is perhaps in the best position of anyone to capture its first regular-season conference title since 2001.

The Cyclones’ only loss this season came after a game-winning three-pointer by Auburn in Maui last month. Otherwise, ISU handled business when necessary. The Cyclones led almost the entire way as they defeated Kam Jones and then-No. 5 Marquette last week, and they cruised to a nearly 30-point victory over Big 12 foe Colorado in Hawaii.

The Cyclones also don’t have a single star like Duke has Cooper Flagg or Kansas has Hunter Dickinson. All five of the Cyclones’ starters are averaging double figures, led by guard Keshon Gilbert with 17.4 points per game. He had nine points and six rebounds on Thursday night.

You can and must contact anyone at any time. Otzelberger attributed this successful strategy in part to the fact that nine players were brought back from last year’s team.

“I think it’s dangerous because you can only put your best defender on one guy,” Jones said. “We have a lot of weapons… I really trust whoever has the ball and I think that’s what makes us so dangerous. “If you have a weak link on defense, I think we’ll go for it.”

Iowa State will certainly find itself in similar situations to Thursday night’s in the coming months. But now that they’ve “weathered the storm” and made it with a win in a big game, Jones and the Cyclones know what they’re capable of. It’s just a matter of achieving that again and again.

“We didn’t separate (tonight), which is the case with many programs when things are going badly, especially given the pressure put on us from the outside,” Jones said. “I don’t really think we feel that pressure, but that’s a credit to our experience.”