Iowa State sends UCLA home early from NCAA Tournament

By AJ Cadman Daily Bruin Senior Staff

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — UCLA arrived in Detroit on March 23
hoping to earn a spot in this year’s Final Four. But the Iowa State
Cyclones swept in with a fury that left UCLA dazed and headed home
sooner than expected.

Behind a near triple-double of 14 points, 11 assists and nine
rebounds from point guard Jamaal Tinsley, Iowa State (32-4) ended
UCLA’s (21-12) season with an 80-56 victory before a sellout crowd
of 21,214 at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

The win put the Cyclones in the Midwest regional final, where
they fell two days later to Michigan State, who celebrated their
second straight trip to the Final Four just an hour away from their
campus in Flynt.

The win was Iowa State’s first over the Bruins.

"They played a sound game on both ends of the floor," UCLA head
coach Steve Lavin said of the Cyclones. "They were able to break us
down."

After a turnaround hook by forward Jerome Moiso cut Iowa State’s
lead to 20-18 with 10:28 left in the first half, the Cyclones
promptly put together a 7-0 run. UCLA center Dan Gadzuric countered
with a layup, though, and forward Jason Kapono’s three-pointer
closed the lead to 27-23 with seven minutes left in the first
period.

But the Cyclones then closed out the half with a 13-5 run, led
by Tinsley.

"They did a good job of disrupting our offense," Lavin said.

"We just came out and couldn’t do anything right," added
sophomore forward JaRon Rush, who finished with six points, six
rebounds and was zero for five from beyond the arc. "Some nights
you have it and some nights you don’t. We seemed lackadaisical out
there today."

The Bruins opened the second half sluggishly as Iowa State
pushed its lead to 17 at 50-33. Earl Watson picked up his fourth
foul with 16:59 left in the second period and Kapono did likewise
at 13:50 as the Cyclones continued to pull away from the
Bruins.

"We didn’t take care of the ball enough and they made the best
of it," Moiso said. "We didn’t play our best game. They came in
wanting to beat UCLA and we didn’t answer."

Iowa State avenged an overtime loss to the Bruins in the 1997
Sweet 16.

"We stayed with what we thought would help us win," Cyclone head
coach Larry Eustachy said. "We haven’t been good at holding leads
or building leads. It was a great team effort and UCLA caught us at
a bad time."

"It didn’t matter who we played, we just wanted to be the
tougher team out there on the court," added Iowa State All-
American forward Marcus Fizer, who scored 16 points in the game.
"We weren’t going to change our game plan for UCLA. We never change
our game plan no matter who we play."

Moiso led the Bruins with 15 points and 10 rebounds on five of
12 shooting.

Kapono finished shooting three for 11 from the field while
scoring eight points as UCLA shot 34 percent for the contest.

The game marked the Bruins’ worse NCAA Tournament loss since
1998, when they fell to Kentucky 94-68 in the South regional
semifinal. It also came only five days after a 105- 70 blitzing of
third-seeded Maryland.

The last Pac-10 team was knocked out of the tournament with the
loss, following the unexpected exits of top seeds Stanford and
Arizona in the second round.