No. 4 Cyclones launch late run, beat Illini

NICEVILLE, Fla. — With Illinois and No. 4 Iowa State trading the lead for most of Saturday’s championship game in the Emerald Coast Classic, Cyclones guard Monte Norris decided with 10:51 remaining to try and deliver a knockout punch.

Iowa State held a 59-58 lead when Norris had the ball at midcourt and saw Abdel Nader had a step on his defender. Norris fired a lob pass and Nader slammed it home. The dunk was part of an 18-4 run in the Cyclones’ 84-73 victory.

“We practice a lot of lobs and connect. When I was at halfcourt I saw him point up. I threw it up there and you saw the results,” said Norris, who was voted the tournament MVP after having 20 points and nine rebounds.

Georges Niang, who led the Cyclones (5-0) with 23 points, had six points during the spurt. Norris and Nader (18 points) had four apiece.

“That catapulted the momentum, changed the whole pace and fired us up,” Niang said. “I really think that was instinct from Monte. He knows the time, the score and what it is going to do to change momentum.”

For the first 30 minutes, Illinois (34) hung in and was challenging the Cyclones at both ends of the court, scoring seven of the game’s first nine points and leading 12-6 less than five minutes in. Iowa State started slowly cutting into the lead, as the last 12 minutes of the half saw six ties and seven lead changes.

The second half had two more ties and five lead changes before the Cyclones seized control.

“It felt like a heavyweight boxing match and then the last 8-9 minutes they imposed their will and for whatever reason we weren’t able to impose ours,” Illinois Coach John Groce said.

Malcolm Hill led Illinois with 20 points, while Kendrick Nunn added 19 and Mike Thorne Jr. had 10.

— The Associated Press