Iowa State vs. Kansas: Score and Twitter Reaction from 2015 Regular Season

Kansas avenged its only Big 12 loss of the season with an 89-76 win over Iowa State.

The Jayhawks were solid in the first half but outstanding offensively in the second, scoring 54 points after intermission. A lot of this is due to the play of Wayne Selden, who had 19 of his 20 points in the second half. 

Frank Mason also had a solid outing with 12 points, eight assists and five rebounds after going scoreless in the first half. With Perry Ellis and Kelly Oubre combining for 33 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, this ended up being an easy victory for Kansas.

Georges Niang was the lone bright spot for Iowa State with 24 points, six rebounds and five assists, but it clearly wasn't enough while playing against a team that shot over 50 percent from the floor.

With the win, the Jayhawks improved to 8-1 in the Big 12 and two games ahead of the 6-3 Cyclones, although West Virginia remains in second place at 6-2. Still, many analysts are already leaning toward Kansas being the conference champions once again:

This mindset would have been much different, of course, if Iowa State had been able to win this game. The Cyclones were not only looking to move into a tie in the conference standings but also secure a season sweep over their rival after winning at Hilton Coliseum last month.

Although many coaches like to downplay a big game during the season to keep the pressure off, Kansas' Bill Self knew this contest was as important as any, via KUSports.com:

"

This is about as big a game as you can have halfway through a conference season. [...]

There will be bigger games later as you get down to the finish line, but the whole thing is, I’m not even thinking about the league race. I don’t want our guys to think about the league race. I want our guys thinking they have an opportunity to play against a team that definitely played better than us the first time we went out and we deserved exactly what we got. That’s what I want my team to think about.

"

His team clearly got the message and responded with an impressive win at home. 

The one thing that was obvious right out of the gate was a lot of energy from both sides. Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports gave his impression of the early going:

ESPN's Myron Medcalf seemed to agree:

The heightened aggression was also accompanied by carelessness, as Kevin Haskin of The Topeka Capital-Journal described:

This was a bit of a surprise for two talented offensive teams, but the game remained close early on. That was until the Jayhawks' shots started to fall, resulting in a 35-28 lead going into halftime. 

The play of Oubre, who had 10 points in the first half, especially stood out to Reid Forgrave of Fox Sports:

Meanwhile, Jeff Borzello of ESPN noted the key to containing Iowa State is to limit its buckets in transition:

Iowa State was held without a fast-break point in the first 20 minutes after dominating in this area the first time these teams met.

Things didn't get any better for the Cyclones in the second half as it became the "Wayne Selden Show" for Kansas. The sophomore sensation started to stretch the court with his outside shooting, adding a whole new dimension to the Kansas offense, as Seth Davis of CBS Sports noted:

Travis Hines of the Ames Tribune and Yahoo Sports' Jeff Eisenberg agreed that Iowa State needed to step it up on defense:

Selden's shooting and the overall efficiency of the Kansas offense allowed the team to pull away for what became a dominant 13-point victory that wasn't even as close as the score would indicate.

Still, all college basketball fans can probably agree with ESPN's Jeff Goodman: 

With a chance to avenge arguably its worse loss of the year, Iowa State will try to put this game behind it with a home game against Texas Tech looming on Saturday. The Red Raiders won, 78-73, when these teams played in Lubbock, which, to this point, is the team's only conference win of the year.

Kansas will go on the road Saturday to face Oklahoma State. Even though the Cowboys have lost four of their last six games, they have a lot of talent and are certainly capable of pulling off the upset.

In either case, it is important to remember the Big 12 title is far from being decided.

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