Mar 23, 2025; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Mississippi Rebels guard Dre Davis (14) and Iowa State Cyclones forward Joshua Jefferson (2) go after a loose ball during the second half in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Fiserv Forum. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-Imagn Images
MILWAUKEE — The emotions blindsided Joshua Jefferson as the final seconds cruelly ticked off the Fiserv Forum clock. The buzzer blared, and Iowa State’s standout junior stretched his jersey over his face, momentarily holding back tears in the wake of his third-seeded team’s 91-78 loss to No. 6-seeded Ole Miss Sunday night in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Cyclones’ planned extended stay amid “March Madness” abruptly ended. Final Four dreams extinguished by injuries and drama dissolved into the ether. And that’s hard to process — let alone accept — for an ISU team (25-10) that seemed destined for at least a third trip to the Sweet 16 in head coach T.J. Otzelberger’s first four seasons.
“I’m just a competitor,” said Jefferson, who scored 16 points and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds while playing 37 minutes. “I want to win every time I’m on the floor. So it being the end of the season it was just kind of like, ‘Dang, the season’s over.’ That’s just where my mind was at.”
Ole Miss (24-11) simply didn’t miss for most of the first half to advance to the Sweet 16 for the second time in program history. The Rebels rapidly erased an early 13-5 Cyclone lead by responding with a decisive 23-4 run that gave them a 28-17 lead on Matthew Murrell’s conventional 3-point play with 7:22 left in the first half. Ole Miss’s lead would eventually swell to 26 points in the second half as ISU scrambled in vain to find consistency on either end of the floor.
“They’re a team that plays with a lot of toughness,” Otzelberger said. “They’re connected defensively, their switching can be disruptive. At times it wears on you mentally (and) you’re not able to get the ball in the paint and not get the normal plays that you want to make.”
Star guard Curtis Jones led all scorers with 26 points in his Cyclones’ swan song, and sank four of his team’s eight 3-pointers.
“Credit to Ole Miss, they really outplayed us today,” said Jones, who scored 94 points in five career NCAA Tournament games with ISU, the fifth-most in program history. “So I tip my cap to them. Obviously, we wish the game was closer, but I gave it everything I’ve got.”
Junior guard Tamin Lipsey tweaked the groin injury he sustained in the Big 12 Tournament again early in the loss, which further hampered his ability to move without experiencing searing pain.
“It was kind of hard to play how I like to play,” said Lipsey, who scored seven points in 32 minutes. “The movement wasn’t how I wanted it to be, and that’s tough when it’s such a big-time game to not feel like you want to feel.”
The same regret washed over sharpshooting sophomore forward Milan Momcilovic, who scored 20 points on 4-for-8 3-point shooting in the Cyclones’ first-round win over 14-seed Lipscomb, but shot just 2-for-12 from the field in Sunday’s dispiriting loss to the Rebels.
“Just thinking about thanking (seniors) Brandt (Chatfield), Curt, and Conrad (Hawley),” said Momcilovic, who finished with five points. “I appreciate everything they do. And then (we) talk about don’t hang the head. A lot of us still have eligibility left so we’ll be back here and use it as motivation, so when the time comes, we can get over this hump.”
Jefferson plans to do the same once the sting of Sunday’s setback fades and the potential for another strong season springs to the fore. Tears will turn to smiles, and disappointment will dovetail with optimism. But until then, there’s nothing but hurt — and that will linger for a while.
“Just a sadness about the season being over,” the 6-9 junior said. “We all wanted to go farther in this tournament. Just a bunch of sadness, but I appreciate all of our seniors for what they did for us on the floor.”
And one loss — even on the sport’s grandest and cruelest stage — won’t define them even as it marks the end of their ISU careers.
“The young men in our program have fought a lot this year, and we’re proud of how they’ve worked every single day,” Otzelberger said. “And all of them can say they left the program in a better place, so (I’m) proud of these guys.”
