No. 10 Iowa State's not looking past Alcorn State as game at Purdue looms

AMES — Milan Momcilovic sniffed out the steal, shifted into transition mode and saw a straight-line path to the hoop.

One thing crossed the slick-shooting Iowa State junior’s mind: Dunk it.

One authoritative one-handed slam later, Momcilovic finally had his first career college flush in the No. 10 Cyclones’ Players Era Festival-capping 95-64 shellacking of Syracuse in Las Vegas — and he excitedly told the TNT broadcast crew about it.

“First dunk of my college career,” Momcilovic said with emphasis.

So how does it feel now, roughly a week later as ISU (7-0) prepares to face Alcorn State (1-8) at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Hilton Coliseum?

“Man,” he said. “It was a good feeling to get that one. I knew right away when I got it. I was running feel speed, I was gonna go up with it. Glad it went in.”

Never a doubt — just like the Cyclones’ final two wins that punctuated a 3-0 run through Vegas.

ISU beat Creighton, 78-60, the previous day to avenge a blowout loss to the Bluejays in the first exhibition game of the season. And the Cyclones did it without star senior guard and leading scorer Tamin Lipsey, who remains day-to-day with a groin injury sustained late in the Players Era Festival-opening 83-82 win over St. John’s.

“(Lipsey’s) continuing to progress every day,” said ISU head coach T.J. Otzelberger, whose team will face top-ranked Purdue at 11 a.m. Saturday in West Lafayette. “He’s gonna do some additional evaluations with our medical staff (Tuesday) afternoon, (and) he’s trending in a good direction. I don’t know exactly what that means. I don’t want him to feel any pressure to need to play, or feel like he has to play. I want it to be when he feels great, he returns.”

Otzelberger also said he wants to see Lipsey’s trademark “burst and explosiveness” fully regained before he returns to the floor — whenever that may be.

“I want him to feel fully healthy before he steps back out,” Otzelberger reiterated. “But (the) progress has been great.”

As has the play of freshman guard Killyan Toure in Lipsey’s absence. The 6-3 French import has been solid on both ends of the floor all season, but he scored a career-high 20 points in Lipsey’s first game on the bench, then notched 19 points in the win over the Orange. That’s a 19.5-points-per-game average without Lipsey, who leads ISU in scoring at 18.4 points per game.

“Everybody said my defense is what let me play (and be) in the starting five,” said Toure, who’s averaging 11.7 points and shooting 59 percent from the field. “I (had) two good games and I’m really happy about it, but now we have to move forward and focus for the next games.”

That begins with Alcorn State, which started the season on a seven-game skid before notching an 81-74 win over Indiana State last Friday in Ruston, La.

“We’ve been very direct in our approach and preparation for this game,” Otzelberger said when asked about the dangers of looking ahead to the matchup with the Boilermakers. “We’ve been demanding in terms of the standards and the things that need to show up for us.”

That’s relentless defense. That’s dominance on the glass. That’s excellence in transition.

Toure’s played a key role in all of those areas while developing a penchant for turning steals into dunks on a routine basis.

But what’s his favorite part of that steal-dunk proposition?

“I would say the steal, because it’s tough to (not) make a foul,” said Toure, who ranks second to Lipsey with 14 steals this season. “I just try to steal the ball at the perfect moment and, like I said earlier, I like to dunk and create a little bit of spectacular action.”

Just like Momcilovic, who finally got that first dunk out of the way, and is shooting a sizzling 49.1 percent from 3-point range.

“You’ve got to account for him every possession and know where he is,” Otzelberger said. “He’s really locked in mentally.”

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