Milwaukee – Milan Momcilovic scored 17 of his 20 points in the first half, and the third sowing of Iowa State defeated Lipscomb 82-55 in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday.
Curtis Jones had 17 points when the state of Iowa recovered very well after dropping four of seven to the tournament. Joshua Jefferson finished with 10 points and eight assists.
The following for cyclones (25-9) in the southern region is the winner of Mississippi versus North Carolina.
Momcilovic, a second -year student of 6 feet 8 from Pewaukee, Wisconsin, made four triples and grabbed five rebounds.
“It means a lot to make a show in front of friends and family. I wanted them to get to a good game and get it,” said Momcilovic.
Jacob Ognacevic, the player of the year at Atlantic Sun, took Lipscomb with 18 points. Gyasi Powell added 11.
Healthy again after being left aside with an injury in his hand at the beginning of the season, Momcilovic took over the first half. He scored 12 points in a 14-0 race that helped cyclones to a part-time advantage of 40-24.
“I think I hit two or three 3 and then I took advantage of the smallest defender and knocked him down,” Momcilovic said.
Iowa’s coach, TJ Otzelberger, said his team remained ready when Lipscomb took an early advantage.
“There was no panic. We did not hurry or did anything out of place,” he said. “And then Milan took over the game. You could see that his trust grew once he saw the basket and credit to his teammates for doing incredible job when he found him.”
Iowa’s status size advantage bothered Lipscomb for much of the afternoon. It was the lowest score game for the sowed bisons 14 (25-10).
Lipscomb: The Bisons made only their second appearance in the NCAA tournament. Its only other trip, like 15 seeds in 2018, resulted in a defeat of 84-66 against North Carolina.
State of Iowa: Tamin Lipsey, who has been dealing with an injury to the groin that kept him out of the defeat of the Big 12 tournament of the Iowa state for Byu, had 10 points on his return to the alignment. He provided an impulse for a cyclones team to play without the second scorer Keshon Gilbert due to a groin injury.
“They are one of the few teams in the country that only hit the ball inside. They really took advantage of us,” said Lipscomb coach Lennie Aqueff. “We were fighting, but we really didn’t have an answer. For us to win, we knew we had to shoot it well. I think we did five 3 in the first 10 minutes and I don’t think we did another for 20 minutes. They force you to get it a little faster. They have a little more length than we usually see.”
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