MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — With Iowa State’s starters in deep foul trouble, reserve forward Abdel Nader matched a season high with 19 points and the No. 17 Cyclones edged No. 14 West Virginia 74-72.
“We needed every one of those points,” said Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg, whose team has won each of its first two Big 12 games by a basket. “Abdel was unbelievable out there tonight—not only hitting shots, getting to the free-throw line and getting to the basket, but also his poise against the press.”
Georges Niang, playing the final 11 minutes with four fouls, added 16 points for Iowa State (12-2, 2-0 Big 12), which suffered a season-worst 18 turnovers yet snapped the Mountaineers’ seven-game win streak.
Point guard Juwan Staten scored 23 and forward Devin Williams delivered a 14-point, 15-rebound double-double for West Virginia (14-2, 2-1). Though their trademark press created throwaways, the Mountaineers could not overcome 32 percent shooting, including a 7 of 29 night from 3-point range. They came in last in the Big 12 in 3-point percentage.
“We just didn’t pass the ball. We had guys open and we didn’t pass the ball,” Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins said. “We had Velcro hands—everybody who caught it wanted to hold it, play with it, dribble it.”
West Virginia has grown accustomed to flexing its depth, but this time Iowa State enjoyed a 29-19 edge in bench scoring. Much of that came courtesy of Nader, the Northern Illinois transfer who hadn’t scored a point in his previous two outings.
Nader’s second double-digit scoring game of the season proved crucial after Iowa State’s Monte Morris and Dustin Hogue fouled out. Nader made all six of his free throws, including two with 14 seconds left for a 73-70 lead.
After West Virginia chose not to try a potential tying 3-pointer, Williams was fouled trying to stick back Staten’s miss with 6 seconds. Williams’ free throws trimmed the deficit to 73-72, but West Virginia couldn’t produce a steal on the inbounds pass and fouled Naz Long with 1.6 seconds left.
Long made the first free throw and intentionally missed the second, leaving West Virginia’s Nate Adrian to launch an off-target 60-foot heave as time elapsed.
“You have to win road games if you want to compete for league championships,” Hoiberg said. “But not many people are going to win in this building.”
Niang’s spinning left-handed bank shot put Iowa State up 69-65 with 1:03 left, but Staten converted a three-point play on the other end, fouling out the Cyclones point guard Morris in the process.
West Virginia missed a chance to pull even on Paige’s in-and-out 3-point try with 2:29 left, and the guard fouled out on the ensuing defensive possession.
What about Nader? WVU’s pregame storyline was how to stop Iowa State’s five starters who scored in double figures—not how to stop Nader, who had scored only 14 points in his last five games.
“This is obviously the best game he’s had of the season,” Staten said. “Nobody could have predicted that he would played that well. I think we did a pretty good job trying to contain the guys we wanted to contain. That just adds another guy to the list that we need to be more aware of.”
After losing by 25 in Morgantown last season, Nader said the Cyclones expected a strenuous game with any number of potential heroes.
“We’re talented,” he said. “We have a lot of guys that can do a lot of things.”
Rebounding edge to Cyclones: Though the Mountaineers collected 19 offensive rebounds, Iowa State won the boards overall, 40-38. That included seven rebounds each for Nader and fellow reserve Jameel McKay.
“To out-rebound them in their own building was huge,” Hoiberg said.
Beyond Williams, who matched his career best on the glass, no West Virginia player grabbed more than four rebounds.
“They got more 50-50 balls than we did,” said Williams. “Coach (Huggins) showed us stats that when they win the rebounding battle they’re like 9-0, and tonight they won it.”
Miles hurt: West Virginia’s Daxter Miles Jr. was helped to the locker room with an injured right leg at the 13:41 mark of the second half. The freshman fell after becoming tangled with teammate Devin Williams. He finished 1-of-5 with three points and a steal in 16 minutes.
Iowa State stats: Morris entered with a 4.8 assist-to-turnover ratio, which ranked No. 2 in the nation. He produced six assists and only one turnover in the win. … McKay, playing in his fifth game since becoming eligible after a transfer from Marquette, blocked five shots. … Niang came in fighting a 6-of-25 shooting slump the past two games. He made 6-of-12 from the floor Saturday.
Huggins at 754: With a 754-304 coaching record, Huggins remained one win shy of matching Henry Iba for 13th on the NCAA career wins list.
Attendance: The game drew 12,076, West Virginia’s second-largest crowd through seven home games.