Big 12 Wrap-Up: Iowa State Wins the Big 12 Tournament
Kansas City, Missouri – The 2015 Big 12 Conference Tournament, held at the Sprint Center, was a highly anticipated tournament after a tough regular season for all 10 teams in the conference.
The Kansas Jayhawks were the No. 1 seed after winning the regular season conference title with a 13-5 conference record. The Iowa State Cyclones and the Oklahoma Sooners both had 12-6 conference records but the second seed went to the Cyclones by way of the tie breaker. The seeding among the top teams only heightened the anticipation of the tournament with all three teams posting similar regular season records.
The tournament opened on March 11 with two games. In the first game No. 9 seeded TCU Horned Frogs beat the No. 8 Kansas State Wildcats 67-65. Chris Washburn and Trey Zeigler led TCU with 16 points. In the second game of the night, the No.7 Texas Longhorns blew past the No. 10 Texas Tech Red Raiders 65-53. Isaiah Taylor led the Longhorns with 12 points and 7 assists.
In the quarterfinals on March 12, the No. 4 seeded Baylor Bears edged the No. 5 West Virginia Mountaineers 80-70. Taurean Prince, the Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year, had 18 points for Baylor. The second quarterfinal game saw the No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks edge No. 9 TCU 64-59. Kansas was led by freshman Kelly Oubre Jr. who scored 25 points.
No. 2 Iowa St. squeaked by No. 7 Texas in the third quarterfinal 69-67. The Cyclones won on a buzzer beater jump shot by Mante Morris who led his team with 24 points. No. 3 Oklahoma beat their archrival No. 6 Oklahoma State Cowboys 64-49 in the final quarterfinal. Buddy Hield, the Big 12 Player of the Year, led the Sooners with 22 points.
The semifinals were held on March 13. No. 1 Kansas and No. 4 Oklahoma battled in the first semifinal as the Jayhawks clinched a spot the championship game with a 62-52 win. Sophomore Wayne Selden helped the Jayhawks get past the Bears by scoring a team-high 20 points.
In the night cap, No. 2 Iowa State escaped past No. 3 Oklahoma 67-65 and booked their spot in the title game. Jameel McKay propelled the Cyclones with 12 points and nine rebounds.
After advancing past the semifinals, Kansas and Iowa State were set to clash for third time in the 2014-2015 season. Iowa State won the first meeting in Ames 86-81 while Kansas won the rematch in Lawrence 89-76. One major storyline for Kansas was the absence of star freshman forward Cliff Alexander who sat out of the game due to an eligibility issue with the NCAA.
The Big 12 Tournament Championship game turned out to be a tale of two halves. Kansas opened the game with stellar defense as Iowa State shot just 34.5 percent in the first half. The Jayhawks shot 44 percent in the first half holding a 37-23 halftime lead.
As the second half began, Kansas was twenty minutes away from their eleventh Big 12 Tournament title. Unfortunately for Jayhawk fans Iowa State came out of the locker room on fire quickly erasing their 14 point deficit eventually tying the game with 7:11 left. The Cyclones had all the momentum the rest of way as they won their second straight Big 12 Conference Tournament title 70-66.
Iowa State outscored Kansas 47-29 in the second half. In the loss, Wayne Selden Jr. led Kansas with 25 points. Georges Niang was the leading scorer for Iowa State as he poured in 19 points.
In the post game press conference Georges Niang, who was named the tournament MVP, said, “We had to stay positive and push through and I think we did that. It led us to a great thing in the Big 12 Championship.”
Kansas’ coach Bill Self said after the game in his press conference, “When they came back and the pressure was on for us to have some good possessions, we didn’t have it… They just made a few more plays than us.”
Both teams now look forward to Selection Sunday when it will be announced who they play in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Written by Charlie Beuttel
Photo credit: Orlin Wagner; Iowa State claimed their second consecutive Big 12 Tournament Title on Saturday in a 70-66 win over Kansas.