ST. LOUIS (AP) — Tamin Lipsey knew he had to step up for Iowa State with All-America forward Joshua Jefferson sitting on the bench, his sprained left ankle still encased in a boot, as the Cyclones played Kentucky on Sunday for a spot in the Sweet 16.
Lipsey, who grew up in the shadows of the Iowa State campus in Ames, answered with the finest game of his four-year career.
The senior guard poured in a career-high 26 points, tied a career high with 10 assists, and led a suffocating defense that shut down the Wildcats in the second half, allowing the second-seeded Cyclones to pull away for an 82-63 victory in the NCAA Tournament.
“All the guys knew we had to step up in different ways,” Lipsey said, “however that presented to us.”
Lipsey didn't do it alone, of course — he needed someone scoring to pile up all those assists. Milan Momcilovic scored 20 points and Nate Heise, getting the start in Jefferson's place, added 12 to help the Cyclones (29-7) advance to a Midwest Region semifinal against either third-seeded Virginia or No. 6 seed Tennessee on Friday night in Chicago.
It will be the eighth Sweet 16 trip for the Cyclones and the third under T.J. Otzelberger, though the question now is whether they will be whole for it. Jefferson, their second-leading scorer and top rebounder, is scheduled to have an MRI exam on Monday.
“We'll see how that goes and take it from there,” Otzelberger said.
Kentucky (22-14) jumped to a 20-9 lead in the opening minutes Sunday before Iowa State fought back to take a 31-30 halftime lead.
The Wildcats were still within 46-40 with 13 1/2 minutes to play when the Cyclones forced three of the Wildcats' 20 turnovers in quick succession. They converted all three into baskets at the other end, part of a decisive 13-1 run, which not only allowed Iowa State to seize control but also seemed to finally deflate Kentucky.
The Wildcats had been buzzing after a buzzer-beater from Otega Oweh forced overtime in a first-round victory over Santa Clara.
“We had a tough time finding baskets and more importantly we had a real tough time getting a stop,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said. “They shot 50 percent in the second half from 3, and they played really well. You're not going to win games when you give up 51 in the second half, and there's a lot of reasons that happened.”
Oweh followed up his 35-point performance against the Broncos with 18 against the Cyclones, playing most of the second half in foul trouble. Denzel Aberdeen led the Wildcats with 20 points, though the pair of guards didn't get a whole lot more help.
“We didn't play fully hard for the full 40 minutes,” Aberdeen said, “and we had to do a better job.”
For two teams that can score in bunches, there was little elegance for much of their first matchup since the 2012 NCAA tourney, when the Wildcats beat Iowa State in the second round on their way to winning the national championship.
The Cyclones missed their first 11 tries from beyond the 3-point arc. Kentucky had 12 turnovers in the first half.
“We got a little disoriented,” Pope said, “and that's what Iowa State does. They increased their pressure and we turned it over 12 times in the first half, and kind of contributed to our own demise.”
Iowa State eventually began driving to the basket and picking up fouls, and generated offense from the free-throw line until its shots started to fall. That began just before the break, and Heise's buzzer-beating 3 gave the Cyclones a 31-30 advantage.
They went on to outscore Kentucky 51-33 after halftime to coast into the semifinals of the Midwest Region.
“We knew we had to be at our best. I'm proud of our guys,” Otzelberger said. “Felt like the game didn't start the way we’d like but on defense, our pressure as the game wore on paid dividends for us. We generated turnovers and scored off our defense.”
Iowa State and Virginia have split four previous meetings, though the Cavaliers won the most recent matchup and the only one in the NCAA Tournament. The Cavaliers cruised 84-71 in the Sweet 16 on March 25, 2016, before losing to Syracuse in the Elite Eight.
The Cyclones beat Tennessee during the 1969 season but they've lost the last two to the Volunteers, the first during a tournament in December 1977 and the most recent on January 27, 2018, during the Big 12-SEC Challenge.
AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
Iowa State's Blake Buchanan, left, blocks a shot by Kentucky's Denzel Aberdeen (1) during the second half in the second round of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 22, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Ali Overstreet)
