By ,
Published May 02, 2016
Kansas City, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - The Iowa State Cyclones take on the Texas Longhorns in the quarterfinal round of the 19th annual Big 12 Conference Tournament on Thursday night.
The winner will advance to Friday's semifinals to tangle with either Oklahoma State or Oklahoma.
Texas, the No. 7 seed in the event, pushed past the hapless Texas Tech Red Raiders in Wednesday's first round, 65-53. The triumph was the Longhorns' 20th of the season, and they have now won their last three games. UT is 24-18 all- time in the Big 12 Tournament, and it has never hoisted the championship trophy despite reaching the title tilt six times, including three straight from 2006-08.
Iowa State is the defending Big 12 Tournament champion, defeating Baylor in a 74-65 final last year. The Cyclones have a total of two titles to their credit, and they are 11-16 all-time in the event. ISU won its final two game of the 2014-15 regular season, and at 22-8 overall and 12-6 in Big 12 play, the team earned the No. 2 seed in this event.
The Cyclones picked up a pair of wins over the Longhorns during the regular season, but the Longhorns still lead the all-time series, 17-13.
Ridley Cameron scored 14 points, Kandal Yancy 13 and Isaiah Taylor 12 to go with seven assists, all of which was needed to help Texas get past Texas Tech on Wednesday. The Longhorns went just 4-of-19 from 3-point range, but they shot 43.9 percent from the field overall while logging an 11-4 edge in points at the foul line. A massive 39-24 rebounding advantage certainly helped UT's cause, as 17 offensive boards led to an 18-3 differential in second-chance points for the Longhorns.
Iowa State is the Big 12's top scoring team, netting 79.3 ppg on the strength of its 48.5 percent shooting effort, which includes a 36.8 percent performance out on the perimeter. Despite claiming the Big 12's Defensive Player of the Year (Jameel McKay, 11.3 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 2.4 bpg) as one of their own, the Cyclones rank last in the league in scoring defense (69.6 ppg), and they are one of the worst in guarding against the 3-point shot (.351). Iowa State features six double-digit scorers, with Georges Niang and his 15.2 ppg leading the way, while the other five net between 10.1 and 11.5 ppg.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/texas-and-iowa-state-meet-in-big-12-tournament