Marble sparks Hawkeyes on both ends
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Roy Devyn Marble’s hot shooting at the start sparked his teammates. It even helped his defense.
Marble scored 22 of his 26 points in the first half and No. 17 Iowa beat No. 10 Michigan 85- 67 on Saturday. Marble even drew the defensive assignment on Nik Stauskas for much of the game, holding the Wolverines’ leading scorer to 10 points.
“I just wanted to come out and be aggressive,” Marble said. “I just told the guys come out here and play hard. If we win, we win, if we lose, we lose. But you won’t be able to doubt our lack of toughness and our energy on both ends of the court.”
The Hawkeyes ( 18- 6, 7- 4 Big Ten) have beaten two AP Top 10 teams in the regular season for the first time since 1990- 91. Iowa avoided a third straight loss at home and split the season series with Michigan.
Caris LeVert scored 22 points for the Wolverines ( 17- 6, 9- 2), who have lost two of three after starting 8- 0 in the Big Ten.
Iowa’s Aaron White had 11 points and eight rebounds. Mike Gesell had 10 points and matched a career high with eight assists, five on Marble’s baskets.
Marble was 6 of 9 from 3- point range in the first half — more 3s than the Hawkeyes made as a team the last five games Iowa, which ranks next to last in the Big Ten in 3- point field goals, finished 10 of 17 from behind the arc.
“When Dev got hot, I was just finding him and finding my shooters,” Gesell said. “It’s really not that hard of a job when you have guys that can score like that.”
In the season’s first matchup of these teams, Stauskas tied a career high with 26 points. McCaffery said Iowa was locked into collectively stopping Stauskas, who was held to 3- of- 6 shooting on Saturday.
“They made a lot of adjustments,” Stauskas said. “They did things on our ball screens and handoffs, which made things difficult. They denied me the ball and when I did try to drive all their guys were in the gaps.”
The Hawkeyes led by as many as 16 points in the first half as Marble connected on three 3- pointers for Iowa’s first nine points.
Later in the half, Marble’s sharp crossover led to a quick layup. Marble knocked down another 3- pointer on the next possession, and hit two more 3- pointers at the end of the half — one just before the buzzer — to give Iowa a 43- 29 lead.
Kansas St. 74, No. 15 Texas 57
MANHATTAN, Kan. — Marcus Foster scored a career- high 34 points on 13- of- 16 shooting and Kansas State endes the Longhorns’ seven- game winning streak.
Foster surpassed the previous scoring mark for a Kansas State freshman set by Michael Beasley against Colorado with 33 points on March 4, 2008. Will Spradling added nine points for the Wildcats ( 16- 7, 6- 4 Big 12) who extended their home winning streak to 12 games.
Foster’s dunk off an alley- oop dunk pass was the highlight of an opening 18- 4 run for the Wildcats over the game’s opening 8 minutes.
Isaiah Taylor had 17 points for the Longhorns ( 18- 5, 7- 3) while Connor Lammert added eight points.
No. 16 Iowa St. 84, TCU 69
AMES, Iowa — Melvin Ejim hit 20 of 24 shots in scoring a Big 12- record 48 points and grabbed a career- high 18 rebounds for 16 Iowa State.
Ejim had two 3- pointers and six dunks during his big game, one on a spectacular fast- break lob from DeAndre Kane that gave the Cyclones ( 18- 4, 6- 4 Big 12) a 67- 52 lead and effectively put the game out of reach.
A 6- foot- 6 senior, Ejim scored 20 straight Iowa State points during one stretch in the second half. It was his 30th career double- double. Georges Niang added 11 points and Kane finished with 10 assists for the Cyclones, who avoided a letdown after their thrilling three- overtime victory at Oklahoma State on Monday, their first win in Stillwater since 1988.
Kyan Anderson led the Horned Frogs ( 9- 13, 0- 10) with 27 points and eight assists. Amric Fields scored 18 points and Karviar Shepherd had 11. Ejim padded his Big 12 scoring lead with a performance that topped the previous conference record of 44 points by Kansas State’s Denis Clemente in 2009 and the Wildcats’ Michael Beasley in 2008. His previous high had been 23 points against Oklahoma last season.
Iowa State’s school record is 54 by Lafester Rhodes in an overtime victory over Iowa in 1987.