Toure, Heise, Buchanan shine in First Round win
ST LOUIS, MISSOURI - MARCH 20: Killyan Toure #27 of the Iowa State Cyclones dunks the ball against the Tennessee State Tigers during the second half in the first round of the 2026 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Enterprise Center on March 20, 2026 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) | Getty Images ST. LOUIS — Two and a half minutes into No.
2 seeded Iowa State’s First Round game against No. 15 seeded Tennessee State, the (per the box score) 17,192 in attendance seemingly held their collective breath as consensus All-American Joshua Jefferson fell awkwardly. Jefferson required assistance off the floor and returned to the bench with crutches and a boot.
“He has a sprained left ankle, we had an x-ray and the x-ray was negative, so we’ll continue to reevaluate over the next day or two and just see where things are when we get to Sunday and we figure out what time we play,” head coach T. J. Otzelberger said.
In his absence, the Cyclones (28-7, 12-6 Big 12) offense seemed to run on 108 octane in their 108-74 victory over the Tigers (23-10, 15-5 Ohio Valley) Friday at the Enterprise Center. The 108 points are a school record for most points in an NCAA tournament game. Dante Harris’ layup with 15:18 remaining in the first half trimmed Iowa State’s lead to two, 9-7.
Over the next 5:31, the Cyclones went on a 23-0 run. Milan Momcilovic and Nate Heise each tallied eight points in the run, Batemon scored five points and Toure contributed two of his career high 25 points. Toure also pulled down a team high 11 rebounds in the win.
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