No. 17 Iowa St. falls to No. 14 West Virginia 97-87

Miles strained his right hamstring in a February 13 win against TCU and missed losses at Texas and against Oklahoma. He played Saturday against the Sooners and shot 4-for-16.

Senior Forward Abdel Nader led the way for Iowa State scoring 23 points and seven rebounds despite being harassed by the Mountaineer faithful all night. Miles came off the bench for the first time in his career.

The Mountaineers let an 11-point first-half lead slip away early in the second half before Paige and Phillip carried them down the stretch. There was nothing Iowa State could do to quiet Paige, so plenty of credit goes to Paige for his performance.

Phillip was 6-of-10 from the floor, but the junior guard was red-hot from 3-point range, making 6-of-8. “We’re not really trying to pressure and deny”. “That’s my goal. If we could just get middle of the pack”.

With the win, West Virginia clinches a season sweep over a tough Iowa State team (19-9, 8-7 Big 12) – Paige scored 23 points when these two teams met last in Ames, Iowa, in an 81-76 WVU win. “We’ve got to finish strong to put together the strongest seed we can come up with”. Point guard Monte Morris (14.8 points, 7.3 assists, 4.1 rebounds) could be entering the National Basketball Association draft after this season.

Early on, Iowa State took the lead with some sharpshooting of its own, but WVU hung in close until Holton entered the game and hit a tip that inspired a Mountaineer run of 10 straight points.

This conference has six of its 10 teams ranked in the AP Top 25 poll, and it’s hard to predict what its games will bring each night except that every one will be a battle. Led by a 34-point game by Jaysean Paige, the Mountaineers had a run of five-straight made baskets to build its lead up to six points at 84-78. Paige would end the drought with a jumper to nod things up at 53-all. “We only gave up five offensive rebounds in the second half”. Iowa State has been playing well as of late and have been one of the better teams in the Big-12. Midyear transfer Deonte Burton became eligible nearly immediately after Mitrou-Long shut it down, but no other Iowa State reserve has averaged more than 5.5 minutes during Big 12 play. “We’ve got three games left in the regular season, and then it’s nitty-gritty time, win or go home in the conference tournament and the same way for the NCAA tournament”.

Paige would follow with an offensive rebound put back, and a foul shot to give the Mountaineers their biggest lead of the first half at 46-38 with 37.6 left to play.

Iowa State: The Cyclones shot 51 percent (31 of 61) from the field, the fifth straight game they have surpassed 50 percent…. Iowa State had an elite offense and a middling defense last year; Iowa State has an even better offense and an even more mediocre defense this year. And, as is always the case with Iowa State, which has a lot of talent but little depth, WVU’s bench scored 30 points to just four for the Cyclones.

The Cyclones made 15 of 26 shots and 6 of 10 3-point attempts but fell victim to WVU’s substance and style.

The Mountaineers were only called for 14 fouls tonight and actually committed seven fewer than Iowa State. Iowa State just got manhandled down low, and if they run into any huge frontcourts in March, they will be in trouble. Neither team led by more than four while the score was tied four times and the lead went back and forth six times until the Mountaineers closed with a flurry.