A day after setting the Big XII Tournament record for margin of victory in a 91-42 win over Arizona State in the second round, the Cyclones defeated Texas Tech 75-53 in the quarterfinals. The Iowa State win set up a likely game against Arizona in the Big XII Tournament semifinals on Friday night.
Arizona beat Iowa State 73-57 on March 7 to clinch the regular season Big XII Title on Senior Night for the Wildcats. Iowa State rallied from a 17-5 deficit with 13:58 remaining in the first half to earn the win over Texas Tech. The Cyclones outscored the Red Raiders 39-20 in the second half.
Iowa State rallied in the first half and eventually led 36-33 at halftime. The Cyclones went on a 15-4 run to take their first lead of the game at 21-20 with 9:34 remaining in the first half. Iowa State and Texas Tech traded the lead throughout the remainder of the first half before the Cyclones took the three-point halftime lead.
Iowa State outscored Texas Tech 23-6 to start the second half to a 59-39 lead with 10:39 left in the game and was never seriously threatened again. The closest Texas Tech got in the remainder of the game was 60-43 with 9:17 remaining.
THE STORM ROLLS ON 🌪️@CycloneMBB has clinched a spot in the 2026 Phillips 66 Big 12 Men's Basketball Tournament Semifinals.
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) March 12, 2026
Iowa State will play the winner of our next matchup – No. 8-seed UCF and No. 1-seeed Arizona – tomorrow at 6 p.m. CT.#Big12MBB | @Phillips66Gas pic.twitter.com/io96QMCbNs
A look back at Arizona win over Iowa State
Arizona dominated Iowa State in their one game this season. Iowa State shot 29.2 percent from the field and made seven out of its 30 three-point attempts. Arizona held Joshua Jefferson, Tamin Lipsey and Milan Momcilovic to 43 points on eight out of 32 shots from the field and three of 17 on three-point attempts.
Arizona shot 45.8 percent against Iowa State and made 23 out of its 26 free throw attempts. The Wildcats finished with a 40-33 rebounding advantage, a 28-17 edge in bench points and outscored the Cyclones 17-9 in fast break points.
The first Big 12 Tournament semifinal is on Friday at 3:00 PM Mountain Standard Time. Houston plays BYU and Kansas matches up with TCU in the other quarterfinals on Thursday night. The night session winners will play their semifinal on Friday at 6:30 PM MST, or 30 minutes after the first game ends.