KANSAS CITY — Iowa State’s Curtis Jones was “cooking,” as the kids say.
Having scored 22 points in a span of five minutes, 23 seconds in the first half against BYU in a Big 12 tournament quarterfinal game Thursday, the 6-foot-4 guard from Minnesota picked up right where he left off in the second half.
The transfer from Buffalo opened the second half with a stepback jumper and another 3-pointer to push the Cyclones lead to 60-52 with 18:24 remaining.
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Enter BYU’s Trey Stewart, one of the Cougars’ best defensive players — along with starter Mawot Mag — and as hard-nosed of a guy that coach Kevin Young has in his arsenal.
“You again, brother?” Jones said as Stewart lined up against him moments after coming back on the floor.
Little did Jones know how prophetic those words would be.
Jones would not score again until 4:57 remained, mostly due to the defense of Stewart and Mag and some timely switches by Dallin Hall, Egor Demin and Dawson Baker.
That bucket cut BYU’s lead to 84-82 and some free throws by Jones with 1:15 left cut the deficit to 89-88, but that was it and the Cougars rode off with a 96-92 win despite 31 points from Jones, the Big 12’s Sixth Man of the Year.
After going 8 of 12 in the first half, including 6 of 9 from 3-point range, Jones was just 3 of 10 in the second half, making just one 3-pointer.
Stewart said he “knew the assignment” and was more than willing to give it a shot.
“KY said at the beginning of the season our ceiling is going to be how we play defense,” Stewart said. “Jones was cooking. I can’t lie. It was fun to watch. He’s a good dude. It was fun to play against him, especially. I love that defensive challenge.”
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Stewart, who drew the ire of Utah fans after the 85-74 BYU win in Provo last Saturday by saying he hates Utah “with a burning passion,” also chipped in six points with a pair of 3-pointers on the offensive end.
“I said ‘fun to watch’ (Jones) in terms of fun to watch that battle happen, not fun to watch him go off against us,” Stewart said. “But really (it was about) just taking pride. We come into the game trying to play harder than the guy in front of us, and I feel like we really took pride that second half and executed our defense.”
“You again, brother?”
— Curtis Jones to Trey Stewart in second half of BYU’s win over Iowa State
Iowa State played without starters Tamin Lipsey and Keshon Gilbert — who combined to score 28 points and dish out nine assists in the 88-85 BYU win in double overtime in Ames nine days ago — and Jones made up for the slack early.
But in the end, BYU’s superior depth won the day. BYU’s bench scored 41 points, while ISU’s had only nine.
“They had guys down and they had guys step up,” BYU’s Young said. “The show that Curtis Jones put on in the first half was remarkable. It felt like no matter what we did he was going to make a shot.”
Some of those shots were 10 out of 10 on the scale of difficulty, including more than one 3-pointer from the logo. The combined 31 3-pointers ties the record for most combined 3-pointers in any Big 12 game.
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“Our guys did a good job of weathering the storm and did enough on both sides of the ball to give ourselves the lead,” Young said. “Trey came in and gave us good defense; Richie (Saunders) has made some huge plays for us all year, made some huge plays, some huge free throws down the stretch, which is something that we rely on.”
In Ames, Saunders was 13 of 13 from the charity stripe; Thursday, he was 8 for 8. That’s 21 straight makes when both buildings — Hilton Coliseum and T-Mobile Center — were so noisy that his dribbles couldn’t be heard before his free throws.
“Jones was a one-man wrecking crew. He caught fire, and like Trey said, it definitely wasn’t fun to watch from our seat,” Young said. “But I am sure from y’all’s seat that was pretty spectacular. So credit to him for a great individual performance.”
And to Stewart for putting it to an abrupt halt.
Cougars on the air
No. 17 BYU (24-8) vs. No. 2 Houston (28-4)
Friday, 5 p.m. MDT
At T-Mobile Center
Kansas City, Missouri
TV: ESPN2
Radio: BYU Radio 107.9 FM/BYURadio.org/BYU Radio app
