ESPN News Services
Feb 22, 2025, 05:14 PM ET
HOUSTON -- L.J. Cryer scored 28 points, Milos Uzan added 19 points and No. 5 Houston held on to beat No. 8 Iowa State 68-59 on Saturday.
Cryer and Uzan combined to shoot 18 of 27, including 8 of 12 on 3-pointers. Emanuel Sharp added 11 points for Houston (23-4, 15-1 Big 12), which won its sixth straight.
The Cyclones struggled offensively at times without their two leading scorers -- Keshon Gilbert was out with a muscle strain and Curtis Jones missed the game due to illness -- but they did well defensively forcing Houston into a season-high 17 turnovers.
Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson tipped his cap to the shorthanded Cyclones.
"When you're missing players, they just find a way to compete," said Sampson. "We got up, I think, what was our biggest lead in the second half? 16? Yeah, and they come bang a couple of threes and it goes from 16 to 10. We just, they made some big shots too."
"If they were there, I mean, they weren't there and that wasn't, that's out of our control at the end of the day," Cryer said of the upstart Cyclones. "We knew last year that they beat us twice while we only won one time, so going into the game, we kind of kept that in mind and we had to get that bad taste out our mouth."
Milan Momcilovic scored all 16 of his points in the second half to lead a furious rally for the Cyclones (21-6, 11-5). Nate Heise added 12 points, and Tamin Lipsey scored 11.
Trailing by 16 midway through the second half, the Cyclones used an 18-3 run to cut the lead to 48-47 on a 3-pointer by Heise with eight minutes remaining. Houston responded with four straight points to push the lead back to five.
Houston shot 53% and went 10 of 17 from distance, while Iowa State shot 39%, including 8 of 20 behind the arc.
"Hey, look, man, we're 15-1. We're 15-1. That's not, let's not sit here and slice and dice being 15-1," added Sampson.
With the win, the Cougars inched closer to a second straight Big 12 regular-season title. They currently lead second-place Arizona by 2 ½ games with four games left. Houston is 30-4 in the Big 12 in its two seasons in the league.
Houston travels to No. 9 Texas Tech on Monday while Iowa State takes on Oklahoma State in Stillwater on Tuesday.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
