Ames, IA (SportsNetwork.com) - Still smarting from their first loss of the season, the 20th- ranked Iowa State Cyclones return to the friendly confines of Hilton Coliseum to host the Lamar Cardinals on Tuesday night.
Lamar has lost twice as many games as its won here in the early part of the 2014-15 campaign. The Cardinals dropped a 71-59 decision at Texas Southern last Wednesday, which came on the heels of a 63-58 win the day prior at Arkansas State.
Iowa State brings a 3-1 record into this contest, after the team went 1-1 last week at the CBE Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City. Iowa State beat Alabama in the semifinals (84-74) before putting forth a dismal shooting effort in the championship game against Maryland, losing in a 72-63 final.
This game marks the first meeting these two schools in men's basketball.
For the fifth consecutive game, Tyran de Lattibeaudiere led the Cardinals in the scoring column with his 16 points, but that effort went for naught as Texas Southern earned its first win of the season in a 71-59 decision. Quan Jones chipped in 10 points for Lamar, which made good on 45.8 percent of its field goal attempts, despite missing the mark on 10 of its 13 3-point tries. The team was guilty of 17 turnovers and fell short on the glass as well, 33-27. In addition, Texas Southern shot an even 50 percent from the floor.
The Cardinals are scoring just 63.5 ppg while permitting 74.5 ppg, and they boast only two players averaging double figures in de Lattibeaudiere (15.3 ppg) and Anthony Holliday (10.6 ppg). Also serving as the team's top rebounder, distributor, shot blocker and thief, de Lattibeaudiere (7.3 rpg, 14 assists, nine blocks, 14 steals) is a 65 percent shooter, but even his outstanding effort has the team shooting just 42.4 percent from the field, which includes a poor 27 percent showing from beyond the arc.
After shooting a season-high 58 percent from the floor against Alabama, the Cyclones hit just 29.7 percent of their total shots in the loss to Maryland. It was the second-lowest field goal percentage in Fred Hoiberg's tenure as head coach. Bryce Dejean-Jones led Iowa State with 17 points thanks to a 6- of-12 shooting effort and a perfect performance at the free-throw line (4- of-4). He grabbed seven rebounds as well. Georges Niang tacked on 10 points, but went just 4-of-14 from the floor, while Dustin Hogue missed seven of his eight field goal attempts to finish with a mere three points. ISU did manage a 19-of-22 effort at the charity stripe and committed only seven turnovers.
With Dejean-Jones (.889) and Niang (.885) leading the way, Iowa State is the top free-throw shooting team in the Big 12 Conference at 77.8 percent. Niang is averaging a robust 19.5 ppg, and he already has a pair of games in which he's tallied at least 25 points. He and Dejean-Jones, who is only 33 points away from reaching 1,000 for his career, rank one-two on the team's rebounding list with 7.8 and 7.3 rpg, respectively. The Cyclones are netting 80.2 ppg in hitting 46.1 percent of their total shots, and they have three other players averaging double figures as well. Monte' Morris is one of them, and he also serves as the league's leader in both assists (6.5 apg) and assist-to-turnover ratio (8.7). Despite his horrendous effort against Maryland, Hogue paces the conference in field goal percentage (.588).
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