Jan 4, 2025; Ames, Iowa, USA; Iowa State Cyclones head coach T.J. Otzelberger and guard Tamin Lipsey (center) and forward Joshua Jefferson (left) against the Baylor Bears during the second half at James H. Hilton Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images
AMES — Joshua Jefferson eyed the rim and cleared his mind.
Iowa State’s fate resided in the capable hands of the transfer forward, who toed the free throw line, exhaled, and delivered amid deafening crowd noise Saturday at Texas Tech.
“(We) just continue to play through it all,” Jefferson said on the Cyclone Radio Network after his two free throws with 4.1 seconds left in overtime cemented the No. 3 Cyclones’ 85-84 win over the Red Raiders. “Just continue to fight, fight, fight.”
Six of Jefferson’s 17 points came in overtime as he went 4-for-4 from the free-throw line. ISU guard Curtis Jones scored a game-high and season-best 26 points on 8 for 15 shooting. Jefferson added eight rebounds and Nate Heise grabbed a team-high nine boards off the bench to fuel the Cyclones’ 11th straight win. ISU (14-1, 4-0 Big 12) trailed by as many as 13 points against the Red Raiders (11-4, 2-2) but outscored them 51-40 in the second half and overtime.
“Just staying poised and continuing to do what we do,” said Jones, who also went 7-for-8 at the line. “I’m so confident in this team even in those (fraught) moments just because we never seem rattled. We’re always just on to the next thing.”
Texas Tech led, 74-72, with six seconds left in regulation and called timeout to set its defense. That move also benefitted ISU, however, which saw Jefferson sink a contested layup off a Tamin Lipsey assist with 0.2 seconds remaining to send the game to overtime.
“It’s a great play that our coaches draw up,” Jefferson said. “We practice it every single day in practice and we just come out here and execute. That’s (why) we take practice so seriously — and (head coach) T.J. (Otzelberger) expects that out of us.”
Texas Tech entered the game with the third-best effective field goal shooting offense according to KenPom, but shot just 42.4 percent overall and 35.7 percent in the second half. ISU outscored the Red Raiders, 22-5, in fast break points and Keshon Gilbert (14 points) joined Lipsey in procuring four steals.The Cyclones improved to 3-0 on the road this season — and trailed in the second half in each of those wins.
“This is a really hard place to win,” said Otzelberger, whose team snapped a four-game skid at United Supermarkets Arena. “Proud of our guys for staying resilient, staying together. It wasn’t perfect, but we found a way to hang in there and make just enough plays.”
ISU led for just 99 seconds on Saturday but took advantage of three missed free throws by Texas Tech’s top foul shooters to execute those pivotal plays down the stretch and emerge victorious.
“We weathered that storm in the first half, had to weather it again in the second half, had to hang in there late just to score enough to get it to overtime,” Otzelberger said. “So a credit to our guys for playing one possession at a time. This place was rocking. I felt like I could have had eight timeouts and used them. … Just fortunate for our guys to stay the course.”
Next up: No. 11 Kansas at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Hilton Coliseum.
“(I expect a) great turnout from the crowd again,” Jefferson said. “We’ll rally behind them because we’re gonna go as hard as they root for us, and we love fighting for them.”
