No. 6 Iowa State uses late surge to pull away from No. 5 Marquette

Keshon Gilbert scored 24 and Joshua Jefferson added 15 to lead the No. 6 Iowa State Cyclones to a 81-70 win over No. 5 Marquette on Wednesday night in Ames, Iowa.

The Cyclones (6-1) also got 14 off the bench from Curtis Jones. Gilbert dished out a team-high seven assists while Jefferson grabbed 12 boards.

Marquette (8-1) was led by 17 from freshman Royce Parham. Kam Jones added 14 along with nine assists and eight rebounds despite shooting just 6-of-21 from the field.

The Cyclones controlled most of the first half after using a 14-2 run to take a 16-7 lead. Iowa State shot 64.3 percent from the floor in the opening period and scored six points off of five Marquette turnovers to lead 46-37 at the break.

Gilbert had 18 of his points in the first half, while Jefferson added eight. Freshman Damarius Owens led Marquette with nine points on three 3-pointers, while Jones had just four points along with five assists and five boards.

With just under eight minutes to go in the first half, Marquette guard Chase Ross went down with an ankle injury and was helped to the locker room. He was ruled out for the rest of the game.

Iowa State maintained its lead in the early stages of the second half, but Marquette hung around and eventually rallied behind Jones. He hit back-to-back buckets to bring the Golden Eagles within five and later capped a 10-0 run with a layup to tie the game at 61 with 9:07 left.

However, Iowa State responded with a 14-0 run as Marquette missed 10 consecutive shot attempts, failing to score for nearly six minutes. Jones sealed the run with a layup after hitting a 3-pointer earlier in the surge, which propelled the Cyclones ahead 75-61 with 3:36 to go. The Golden Eagles never drew closer than eight the rest of the way.

The Cyclones held Marquette to just 38.6 percent shooting from the floor, including 33.3 percent in the second half.

--Field Level Media