Mar 11, 2026; Kansas City, MO, USA; Arizona State Sun Devils guard Vijay Wallace (7) drives around Iowa State Cyclones forward Joshua Jefferson (5) and Iowa State Cyclones guard Nate Heise (0) during the second half at T-Mobile Center. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-Imagn Images
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A guy nicknamed “Pig” delivered the blow to Blake Buchanan’s head.
But the Iowa State big man didn’t remember exactly where it landed.
“I just remember going to the ground hard,” Buchanan said.
The 6-10 junior landed in a heap after absorbing the flagrant foul from Arizona State’s Anthony “Pig” Johnson in Wednesday’s second round Big 12 Tournament game, but rose up like a star to score a season-high 17 points as the No. 7 Cyclones scorched the Sun Devils, 91-42, at the T-Mobile Center.
That rough-and-tumble exchange at the rim morphed into a cascade of infractions, as Arizona State forward Massamba Diop then drew a technical foul, as did head coach Bobby Hurley. That put ISU (26-6) on the line for six straight free throws, which led to a six-point possession and a commanding 40-10 lead with 2:50 left in the first half.
“(That) feels pretty good just because, one, I get free points at the line,” said the Cyclones’ slick-shooting junior forward Milan Momcilovic, who scored a game-high 21 points to help his fifth-seeded team advance to Thursday’s 11:30 a.m. quarterfinal matchup with No. 16 and fourth-seeded Texas Tech. “So I got four free throws there, but it’s cool that we broke their spirit early and by the second half, it’s kind of over. We played really well in the first half to set the tone.”
ISU did that with fierce offensive rebounds — amassing six of them in the first four minutes. The Cyclones finished with a 25-to-4 edge in points off turnovers. And the 49-point margin of victory is the largest in Big 12 Tournament history — eclipsing Texas’ 43-point win over Colorado in 2000.
“I think we’re hitting our stride,” said senior forward Joshua Jefferson, who scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds on a day in which he earned first team All-America honors from The Sporting News. “We’re gonna keep excelling and just keep doing what we’re good at.”
That means applying relentless ball pressure and moving the ball crisply on offense. When ISU does both of those things for 40 minutes, wins like Wednesday’s become almost inevitable.
“They really swarmed us,” Hurley said.
Arizona State (17-16) had more than twice as many turnovers (15) than field goals (7) in a first half that ended with the Cyclones up, 45-16. The Sun Devils had just one assist at the break and allowed ISU to go on a 23-2 run after being buried by a 24-0 second-half splurge last Saturday at Hilton Coliseum.
“Obviously, the biggest goal at the end of the year is to play your best basketball and for a while there we kind of got away from that,” said senior defensive captain Nate Heise, who grabbed five rebounds and dished out two assists while not taking a single shot in the blowout win. “Our offense looked slow, we didn’t pressure the ball, and I think we just kind of sat down one day and talked everything through and said, ‘How do we want to play? We want to play fast. How do we want to play defense? We want to play fast and turn them over,’ and for the last couple games, we’ve been able to do that.”
ISU’s senior point guard and all-time steals leader Tamin Lipsey’s done that his entire career, but was limited late last season because of a severe groin injury.
“Obviously, my body feeling healthy at this point in the season, that’s all you can wish for,” said Lipsey, who scored 11 points, doled out four assists and had two steals to breach the 300 career steals plateau. “Just to be able to go out there and compete and feel like myself has been good.”
As for Buchanan’s head? That’s all good, too, as the Cyclones seek to extend their stay in the City of Fountains.
“The confidence you see in Blake right now (and) the smile he had on his face today — it’s so huge for (us),” ISU head coach T.J. Otzelberger said. “I see how he works every day. I’m proud of him for how great he played out there today.”
