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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) -- Iowa State grounded UCLA's
high-flying offense.
With Michael Nurse hitting from outside and teammates pounding
away inside, the Cyclones beat the Bruins 80-56 on Thursday night
to advance to the final eight for the first time.
"UCLA caught us at a bad time," Cyclones coach Larry Eustachy
said. "Our goal was not to let them dunk, and I think we gave them one for the entire game."
|  | | Marcus Fizer, who had 16 points and nine rebounds, celebrates Iowa State's victory. |
Nurse, Marcus Fizer and Stevie Johnson had 16 points each for
the second-seeded Cyclones, who will face top-seeded Michigan State
on Saturday in the Midwest final. The Spartans beat Syracuse 75-58.
Jamaal Tinsley added 14 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds to
help the Cyclones (32-4) extend their winning streak to 10 games.
UCLA's acrobatic offense, which produced 14 alley-oop baskets in
a 35-point victory over Maryland in the second round, never got
started against the Cyclones.
"We saw the defensive mistakes that Maryland made against a
great UCLA team and we tried to make sure it didn't happen to us,"
Fizer said.
Every time the Bruins attempted an alley-oop, Fizer or Johnson
or someone else was there to intercept it or at least knock it
down. And every time the Cyclones missed a shot, they got at least
two defenders back, stopping the Bruins from getting many
fast-break points.
"They played physical and took it to us, reaching in and
getting the ball," said UCLA center Jerome Moiso, who led the
Bruins with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
The Bruins (21-11) simply couldn't hit their shots. After
shooting 62.5 percent against Maryland, the Bruins were held to
33.9 percent Thursday night. And after hitting 14 of 25 3-pointers
against the Terrapins, they made only 4-of-17 against the Cyclones.
"They did a good job of disrupting our offense," UCLA coach
Steve Lavin said.
JaRon Rush, who had directed UCLA's eight-game winning streak
after returning from a 24-game-NCAA suspension, was held to a
season-low six points, going 0-of-5 from 3-point range.
"They knew everything we ran," Rush said. "We seemed
lackadaisical out there. Since nobody could get the other players
going, we struggled."
The Cyclones lost in their previous two games in the final 16,
falling to North Carolina State in 1986 and losing in overtime to
UCLA in 1997. The Cyclones were 0-6 against the Bruins before
Thursday night.
This time, it was all Cyclones. With Iowa State leading 18-16
midway through the first half, the Cyclones used a 9-2 run to take
control.
By halftime the Cyclones opened a 40-28 lead and extended the
lead to 16 points several times before finally using a 9-0 run to
open a 63-43 lead with 7:03 left. Iowa State took its biggest lead,
80-55, with 18 seconds left.
"Our team hasn't been great at holding leads and during
timeouts we told them that," said Eustachy, the Big 12 coach of
the year.
Fizer and Tinsley each had nine rebounds and the smaller
Cyclones had a 43-34 rebounding edge.
Lavin praised Tinsley.
"He's a really crafty point guard," Lavin said. "He's
deceptive with his quickness and how he breaks a defense down. I
think he did a good job in running their team in two speeds."
The loss ends the roller-coaster season for UCLA, which saw the
sixth-seeded Bruins go from an 8-2 start to being booed at home
while losing six of seven, to winning game after game to keep their
slim NCAA tournament bid hopes alive. It also knocks the final
Pac-10 team out of the tourney.
"I think we learned a lot as a team this year," he said.
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ALSO SEE
Mens College Basketball Scoreboard
UCLA NCAA Team Report
Iowa State NCAA Team Report
Chat: NCAA Tourney
Police need tear gas to quell riotous celebration after Sweet 16 win
Spartans roar past Syracuse into Elite Eight
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Coach Larry Eustachy discusses the game plan.
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RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Marcus Fizer says it's all about team effort.
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RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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