KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Iowa State (3-1) played a historically bad offensive game in Tuesday night’s 72-63 loss to Maryland (5-0) in the CBE Hall of Fame Classic’s championship.
How bad? The Cyclones ended the night with a putrid shooting percentage of 29.7, the second worst mark in the Hoiberg era (Missouri, 2011).
Woof.
The postgame word from a guy who knows a little bit of something about offense – Fred Hoiberg – was that selfish basketball had everything to do with it.
“Our spacing was just brutal,” Hoiberg said. “We just weren’t playing for each other tonight and that’s the best way to put it.”
Iowa State dished out an uncharacteristically low eight assists on 19 field goals.
“I don’t remember the last time we had under double digit assists in a game,” Hoiberg said. “We weren’t running. Adversity hit us. We just kind of folded. A to Z. You name it. We just weren’t very good tonight.”
Start to finish, the Cyclones were flat and out of sync.
Tuesday’s loss is even more proof that the Cyclones go as Monte Morris goes. The sophomore guard’s ongoing foul trouble throughout the night didn’t help. Morris played 34 minutes only dished out two assists and was out of the game for key stretches.
Iowa State was 6-for-27 from 3-point range and shot an insanely low 21.2 percent from the floor in the second half.
Take a breath.
It’s only November and the biggest compliment you can give Hoiberg’s program over the years is its reputation of responding well to adversity. While that certainly didn’t happen on Tuesday, the real coaching (and learning) will now begin. That is the glass half-full approach to take from Iowa State’s trip to Kansas City. Hoiberg will now have plenty of tape to teach from.
“Now you get back and you see what you’re made of as a team,” Hoiberg said. “You respond to adversity and a lot of it hit us tonight. We didn’t respond very well on the court and hopefully we respond well in practice on Thursday.”
JOTTINGS
LEADER: Georges Niang went 4-for-14 in the loss and because of it, put the blame on his shoulders.
“I could have done a better job of getting my teammates involved,” Niang said. “I feel like their were some ill-advised shots that I took. I could have passed them up and gotten my teammates some better looks. Bryce really had it going and I probably should have looked to get him going more in the second half.”
As this team’s leader, Niang will have his work cut out for him on Thursday when the Cyclones get back to practice.
LONE BRIGHT SPOT: Give it up for Daniel Edozie. Hoiberg credited the big man for his nine points and five rebounds. The senior was Iowa State’s most active player on defense too.
FT: Iowa State went 19-of-22 from the free throw line and still only scored 63 points.
BOX SCORE NOTES: Bryce Dejean-Jones led Iowa State with 17 points on a 6-12 night from the floor. The Cyclones were out-rebounded 39-38. Maryland scored 30 points in the paint compared to Iowa State’s 24. Maryland’s bench was better than Iowa State’s too via a 24-17 advantage. The Terps went 8-19 from 3-point range.
UP NEXT: Iowa State gets an entire week off before its next game when the Lamar Cardinals (2-3) will come to town on Dec. 2 at 7 p.m.
