Tennessee State Tigers at Iowa State Cyclones

Iowa State loses star F Joshua Jefferson to an injury in first-round NCAA blowout of Tennessee State

They certainly didn't seem too worried about it.

While the second-leading scorer and top rebounder was getting X-rays taken — they came back negative and Jefferson was diagnosed with a sprain — the second-seeded Cyclones ripped off a 23-0 run to take control. They rolled from there to a 108-74 win over over the No. 15 seed Tigers, setting up a matchup with seventh-seeded Kentucky for a spot in the Sweet 16.

Now, the Cyclones are plenty worried: Will their best player be available for a marquee second-round showdown?

“We'll continue to reevaluate over the next day or two,” Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger said, “and just see where things are.”

The Wildcats beat No. 10 seed Santa Clara 89-84 in an overtime thriller to begin the session at the Enterprise Center.

Nate Heise had eight of his season-high 22 points during the decisive run for the Cyclones (28-7), which began shortly after Jefferson was hurt. Killyan Toure had career-bests of 25 points and 11 rebounds while Milan Momcilovic finished with 17 points.

“Whenever our number is called, we're going to be ready,” Heise said. “That's what we do every day in practice is go at each other, so when J-Jeff went down, we knew the other guys were going to have to make some plays.”

Jefferson turned his ankle while landing after a layup just 2 1/2 minutes into the first-round matchup in the Midwest Region. The 6-foot-9 senior had to be helped by trainers to the X-ray room, emerged about 10 minutes later using crutches, and watched the second half from the end of the Iowa State bench with his ankle in a bulky gray boot.

“I think it’s just an ankle sprain right now, but that’s all I got,” Jefferson said. “It was a good feeling, knowing it wasn’t nothing serious and that it’s just sprained. So, I can deal with a sprain. I can get that back going so I can try to play.”

The Cyclones already were dealing with a groin injury that limited point guard Tamin Lipsey in the Big 12 Tournament; he had three points on 1-for-6 shooting against the Tigers on Friday. Now, their depth could be tested even more if they are forced to play without Jefferson, who along with his scoring and rebounding is also one of their best distributors of the ball.

“We’ve got a lot of guys that can do it,” Momcilovic said. “Obviously it sucks that he went down, and we really hope he gets better for us. But you know, we got guys who step up, and we’re one of the top teams in the country for a reason.”

The Cyclones' big first-half run Friday turned a 9-7 lead into a 32-7 blowout in about five minutes. They pushed the advantage to 55-29 by halftime, and the biggest cheer the rest of the way may have come when Jefferson joined his team on the bench after the break.

Iowa State set school records in an NCAA Tournament game for assists (24), points in a half (55) and points in a game (108).

“Obviously we’re built for this,” Lipsey said. “We’ve got all the guys on the team can step up in any moment in time. Without your best player on the court, you need other guys to step up. And you saw that we had guys ready to come in and make plays.”

Aaron Nkrumah had 21 points to lead Tennessee State, which former Duke star Nolan Smith led to the Ohio Valley regular-season and tourney titles in his first season as their head coach. Antoine Lorick III added 20 points and Travis Harper II had 13.

“That's a good team, a high-major. We prepared our best for it and just ended up not coming out on top,” Harper said. “That's a really good team. I hope that they go very far in the tourney.”

Flagrant foul After watching Jefferson get hurt, Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger was predictably incensed when Tennessee State forward Kavien Jones grabbed Dominykas Pleta around the neck and dragged the Cyclones' forward to the ground. The Tigers' freshman received a Flagrant 2 foul, resulting in an immediate ejection, but apologized to Pleta on the way to the locker room.

Up next Iowa State has lost all three of its games against Kentucky, the last two in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The first of those was a 106-98 loss in 1992 in Worcester, Massachusetts, and the most recent an 87-71 loss in 2012 in Louisville, Kentucky; the Wildcats went on to beat Kansas for the national championship that season.

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