By Dallas Jones

IOWA CITY, IOWA – One of the best parts of a rivalry is everything that happens before goes out of the window. No matter the records, rankings or prior games, a rivalry brings out the best in both teams involved.

That was clear tonight as the #3 ranked Iowa State Cyclones were pushed to their limits tonight in Carver Hawkeye arena. They did not hold the lead for the first time until the final three minutes of gameplay in their 89-80 victory. Once again showing why they are one of the nations best.

The CyHawk game is a great example of that and in recent years the biggest factor in determining the final score has been who hosted the game. The hosting team has won by 16+ points each of the last four CyHawk games. Iowa State had not come out with a victory in Iowa City since the 2014-15 season. That all changed tonight, here’s how.

1st half: Slow starts have been a burden to the Hawkeyes multiple times this year, but tonight the Hawkeyes came out scorching hot. They knocked down their first three attempts from deep and already had 13 points by first timeout of the game at the 15:43 mark.

They continued that hot start as they stretched the lead up to eleven early in the half, making six of their first seven three’s. Four different Hawkeyes knocked down shots from deep in the first eight minutes and Brock Harding had five assists before committing his first turnover.

Ladji Dembele put together his best half of the season with eight points off the bench in the first half. His third basket in as many attempts put Iowa up 39-26, their biggest lead of the half. But Iowa State is ranked number three in the country for a reason, as they immediately went on an 8-0 run after.

The Hawkeyes matched every punch the Cyclones had in the first half and walked into the break with a seven point lead.

2nd half: Iowa and Iowa State went stride for stride in the first seven minutes of the second half as the Hawkeyes led 59-53 with 12:49 left in the second half. Ladji Demebele continued his hot first half with a three early in the second half, Payton Sandfort also knocked down two shots from deep early in the half.

Iowa State’s leading scorer Keshon Gilbert (17.4ppg) finally got going in the second half after back to back baskets by him cut the lead down to two points and a tip from Nate Heise tied the game at 66 with 7:41 left to play.

After a few minutes of more back and forth baskets, with 3:05 left in the game, Iowa State grabbed its first lead 76-74 after a Nate Heise layup. The Cyclone extended that lead to five with 1:18 left to play as Iowa went five minutes without recording a made field goal.

An almost exact opposite result as the women’s game from the night before as the Hawkeye controlled this game for over 30 minutes, but the Cyclones showed why they are one of the countries best.

Check out what both coaches and a couple of Hawkeyes had to say postgame here: