West Virginia Aims to Upset No. 2 Iowa State

Morgantown, WV - West Virginia welcomes the No. 2 Iowa State Cyclones (15-1, 5-1) and their 12-game winning streak and highest ranking in program history to a sold-out WVU Coliseum Saturday evening.
Iowa State pounded ninth-ranked Kansas at home Wednesday night 74-57, marking the third ranked win for the Cyclones this season with the only blemish coming against top-ranked Auburn at the Maui Invitational in late November.
“They’re good,” West Virginia University head coach Darian DeVries said. “They were really good last year obviously too but I think that the component that they’ve improved the most on is the offensive side. Their bigs can really pass, they play well off one another, and I think it’s really complemented their guards from a year ago. They were great defensively last year, they’re great defensively again this year, now they can really score on top of it which makes them more of a challenge to try and beat.”
Iowa State is averaging a Big 12 Conference-leading 85.4 points per game while shooting 49.5% from the field, which ranks second in the league.
Curtis Jones is one of five Cyclones averaging double figures in scoring this season. The senior guard is averaging 17.8 points per game and did most of his damage coming off the bench until he made his first start Wednesday night in the dominating win against Kansas. It was a move made by head coach TJ Otzelberger following the injury to forward Milan Momcilovic last weekend against Texas Tech, and they are expected to be with Momcilovic against the Mountaineers, who is one of the five double figure scores and leads the team in three-point percentage at 44.3%.
West Virginia fell at 10th-ranked Houston Wednesday night, marking the first loss to a ranked opponent setting the record to 3-1 against teams in the AP Poll.
The Mountaineers (12-4, 3-2) have had the injury bug, starting with forward Tucker Devries, the team’s second leading scorer. However, he’s missed the last eight games and WVU has found success in his absence. Nonetheless, the recent injury to freshman guard KJ Tenner and missing the last three games has had a significant impact, most notably providing relief for the Big 12’s leading scorer Javon Small.
“I’d love to get him more [rest] at times, obviously with KJ being out. that was more difficult these last few games,” DeVries said. “So, anytime we can get it around the media [timeout] and give him an opportunity just to go catch his breath, certainly a good thing for us to get him out and let him rest a little bit more. I got to get him out a little more. It’s not even being fair to him really, but he did what he needed to do to get us through that stretch without KJ, and having KJ back should certainly help with that.”
Amani Hansberry hit double figures against Houston for the first time since missing a game in late December with an injury. The sophomore forward put it a team-high 16 points, all coming in the second half and strung together 12-straight points to get the Mountaineers within three near the midway point.
Jonathan Powell is averaging 10.8 ppg in Big 12 action and tied a career-high 17 points in the win against Oklahoma State and currently leads the active roster from behind the arc at 37.8%.
West Virgnia leads the all-time series against Iowa State 14-10 and hold a 9-2 advantage inside the WVU Coliseum. Of note, WVU is 2-2 against teams ranked second in the AP Poll at the Coliseum.
West Virginia and Iowa State tips off at 5:00 p.m. EST and the action will stream on ESPN+.