Cinderella hopeful Iona hopes to do the same thing that the University of Alabama-Birmingham did last year and upset the Iowa State Cyclones. Last year in the round of 64, the UAB Blazers of the Conference USA upset Iowa State when the Cyclones were a 3-seed. However, that was last year. Iona made the big dance after winning the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) tournament. They did so by defeating the MAAC regular season champion, Monmouth, whose bench antics led them to win the hearts and minds of people nationwide.

Analysts and bracketologists consistantly mentioned this game as a potential upset. The Cyclones were not convinced, though. Georges Niang, Iowa State’s leading scorer said, “Man, I felt like since Sunday all I’ve been hearing is `Iona is going to upset Iowa State. A.J. English, A.J. English, A.J. English’…I was like, `What about the Iowa State Cyclones? They’re pretty good.’ This is huge for us. This is motivation. We really wanted to beat these guys to really show people we’re real. This is a real team we have here.”

Iowa State planned to use their balanced attack to pull out the victory, and they did just that. A question mark for the Cyclones was junior guard, Monte Morris, who injured his shoulder in a Big 12 tournament game against the Oklahoma Sooners. Iona led off the game on a 5-0 run, but Iowa State capitalized on a 16-2 run to take the lead. They would have it for the rest of the game.

Iona made a late run to try to retake the lead. They cut the lead to 7; however, on the next possession, Iona leading scorer A.J. English traveled and was issued a technical foul for talking. It was then that the comeback fizzled and the Cyclones just needed to run the clock out, and that is just what they did. Iowa State beat Iona 94-81.

Iowa State will move on to play UA-Little Rock on Saturday March 19 from Denver.