What Tommy Lloyd said after Arizona's loss to Iowa State at Hilton Coliseum
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Iowa State is finally healthy, and that's a bad thing for the rest of the Big 12.
After battling injuries for most of the season, the Cyclones had their full complement of players available for Saturday night's game vs. the Arizona Wildcats — and it wasn't close.
Iowa State led from wire-to-wire in an impressive 84-67 victory at Hilton Coliseum. The Cyclones shot 50% from the field, 52.4% from the 3-point line (11-of-21) and 82.6% from the free throw line. Arizona shot 33.3% from the field and 18.2% from the 3-point line (4-of-22).
"They're a really good team with really good players," Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said after the game. "I'm sure they feel like they've got a big push in them now because obviously they came into the season with great expectations and have had some injuries that maybe threw them off their rhythm a little bit. But they feel like they're fully loaded now so I'm sure they're excited."
Sophomore forward Milan Momcilovic went 4-of-7 from beyond the 3-point arc and finished with a team-high 17 points for Iowa State (22-7, 12-6). Junior point guard Tamin Lipsey added 15 points and 8 assists.
Caleb Love had one of his worst games of the season for Arizona (19-10, 13-5), shooting 2-of-15 from the field and turning the ball over four times. He finished with 10 points, 3 assists and 2 rebounds. Jaden Bradley led Arizona with 18 points, and KJ Lewis added 13 points and 6 rebounds off the bench.
Lloyd turned to seldom used sophomore guard Conrad Martinez in the second half, and he helped spark a defensive effort that saw Arizona pull within nine points with just over 3 minutes to play. The Wildcats never got any closer though.
Arizona is now tied for second place in the Big 12 with Texas Tech with two games to play. Here's what Lloyd had to say after the game.
Hilton Coliseum was an 'awesome atmosphere'
"Awesome atmosphere. Congrats to Iowa State, and they played great today. I mean they obviously had a a great shooting stretch there in the first half that kind of gave them the cushion they needed, and were able to kind of ride it out. So a lot of respect for TJ (Otzelberger) and what he's doing here. The fans were great today. I guess good for Ames and bad for Arizona, so we'll move on."
'They shoot the ball well at home'
"They're a really good team and they've been kind of banged up with injuries and fighting themselves. It's not rocket science. All you've got to do is look at their shooting splits home and away and you know that obviously they shoot the ball well at home. You're hoping your defense can have a little bit of an impact on that, and I'm sure we're going to go back and watch that and feel some defensive errors we did that could have either taken away a shot here or there and made them more contested. We just didn't get it done."
'We're not a bunch of bums'
"I'm really proud of our guys for battling back. I mean that could have been a a 30 piece right there. Our guys hung with it. We've got pride. We're here for it. And we're on to the next one."
"We've got pride. We're going to fight back. We're not a bunch of bums. Iowa State played good. ... Our guys have pride and they'll battle back. We've got good players too. It would have been awesome to get off to a little bit better start and made that game go down to the wire. That was the goal and we weren't able to do it."
'i'm really proud of Conrad'
"Conrad's an amazing kid. I love that kid. High character. Incredible player. I just haven't given him a lot of opportunities, and the way that game was going you never know. You throw a curve ball in there and see what happens. I thought he really, really, really impacted the game. His stat line won't show it, but I thought he really impacted the game and it was a spark. That definitely is something I can put in my back pocket going forward."
"We were down 20 points. You've got to try something. ... And the kid deserved an opportunity. If we were down four I probably wouldn't have did it. So the way the game played out I thought it was an opportunity for him to come in, and if it went well it gives me a good look. I don't want to put him in those situations sometimes when we're down two or four because what if it goes bad? I'm trying to build the kid's confidence and he was great today. We'll see what happens going forward, but I'm really proud of Conrad and his character."
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-029877d49238355bd3388a94f90e3c72.jpg "Ben Sherman")
Ben Sherman has been covering the sports world for most of his 27-year journalism career, including 17 years with The Oregonian/OregonLive. A basketball junkie, March Madness is his favorite time of the year.