AMES, Iowa – Iowa State has already shown it can beat good teams like Michigan and BYU. The Cyclones have also proven they can dominate overmatched opponents.
DeAndre Kane had 20 points and eight rebounds, and 17th-ranked Iowa State trounced Missouri-Kansas City 110-51 Monday night for its fifth straight win.
Sherron Dorsey-Walker added 17 points for the Cyclones (5-0), who used a 27-0 run midway through the first half to put away the Kangaroos.
Iowa State, which was hosting a game as a ranked team for the first time in eight years, posted its third win of at least 30 points this season.
"We've got a lot of guys that can do a lot of things," Kane said. "We play unselfish basketball. We share the ball. We've got a lot of guys that can score, a lot of guys that can rebound. But it all starts with defense."
UMKC can attest to that.
Martez Harrison had 14 points to lead the Kangaroos (1-4), who shot just 29.5 percent and lost for the third time in four games.
"The great teams do it every night. You can't have off days, and that includes practice," Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg said. "I give our guys a lot of credit. They're coming to work every day."
Though UMKC was never really in the game, it did briefly stymie the Cyclones by pressing after every made basket and throwing in some zone looks on defense.
It only took a few minutes for Iowa State to find its rhythm and run away from the Kangaroos.
The Cyclones reeled off 27 straight points midway through the first half after letting UMKC get to 19-13. Dustin Hogue beat the zone with a mid-range jumper and hit a layup to make it 28-13. Kane nailed a 3-pointer to give Iowa State a 35-13 lead, and Melvin Ejim's 3 with 4:40 left in the first half gave the Cyclones a 31-point cushion.
Things got so lopsided so quickly that Hoiberg was able to get seldom-used reserves such as Dorsey-Walker and K.J. Bluford into the game before halftime.
The Cyclones shot over 50 percent for the fifth time in their first nine halves of the season. They also outrebounded UMKC 29-11 and hit seven 3s en route to a 52-17 halftime lead.
All 12 of Iowa State's players finished with at least one field goal as the Cyclones posted the sixth-largest win in school history.
"We just came out with a lot of energy. We just wanted to take care of business from the start and put them away early," guard Matt Thomas said.
Thomas had 14 points and fellow freshman guard Monte Morris scored 11 with seven assists and seven rebounds for the Cyclones.
This was Iowa State's first game at Hilton Coliseum while in the Top 25 since Nov. 26, 2005, when it lost to Iona and fell out of the rankings for 6½ years. Iowa State cycled through coaches Wayne Morgan and Greg McDermott before returning to the rankings for a one-week stay under Hoiberg at the tail end of the 2011-12 season.
The Cyclones beat Michigan at home and BYU on the road to climb to their highest ranking since 2001 — and they might stay there for a while.
Iowa State hosts Auburn on Dec. 2 and plays Northern Iowa in nearby Des Moines before hosting No. 23 Iowa on Dec. 13.
"I was a little nervous. You always are after you get a couple of big emotional wins like we had last week," Hoiberg said. "But I'll tell you, our guys really came out ready in practice the last couple of days, and that's the thing I was most impressed with. They didn't let those other two games get to their heads."
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Follow Luke Meredith on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LukeMeredithAP
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