Maryland cools off Iowa State, wins CBE championship

Plenty of good basketball things have happened to Mark Turgeon in Kansas City.

He worked on Larry Brown’s Kansas staff that won the 1988 NCAA title at Kemper Arena. He played on a team that won a regional championship. Teams that he’s coached have won games here.

Add Maryland’s CBE Classic championship run to the list.

In front of a large group of friends and family, many from his native Topeka, Turgeon walked off the Sprint Center floor with a title after a 72-63 victory over No. 13 Iowa State, and it was a good all-round visit for the Terrapins.

“Kansas City has been such a great city for me my whole life,” Turgeon said.

It was again. Actually, several good days for Maryland. Sunday night, former coach Gary Williams was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

Williams brought a Terps team to Kansas City in 2007 and played in the first CBE Classic at the Sprint Center. Those Terps lost twice. This one had more fortune, thanks mainly to a hard-nosed defense.

“We met as a staff (Monday) night and couldn’t figure out what to do,” Turgeon said. “We can’t do this, can’t do that against them, maybe we should forfeit. I said, let me watch some film and figure it out.”

Iowa State entered the game averaging 86 points and shooting 52.4 percent from the floor. In Monday’s semifinal victory over Alabama, the operation ran smoothly.

But nothing came easily against the Terps, who held the Cyclones to 29.7 percent from the floor, and a colder 22 percent (six of 27) from behind the arc.

“It wasn’t us,” Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg said. “Adversity hit us, and we just kind of folded. We weren’t playing for each other tonight.”

The Cyclones went long stretches between offensive successes. They missed their first nine shots of the second half before Georges Niang scored inside with 14:29 remaining to cut the deficit to 43-34.

The Cyclones finally started to get untracked about midway through the half. Dustin Hogue hit a three-pointer with 12:40 remaining to start a flurry. In the next few minutes, Iowa State twice got the margin to five.

Each time, Maryland freshman Jared Nickens burned the Cyclones with a three pointer. Nickens, a 6-7 wing who attended the same New Jersey high school as Kyrie Irving and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, actually scored eight straight points for the Terps, and his second three restored a 54-46 lead with 9:18 remaining. He finished with 15 points, as did Jake Layman.

The Cyclones’ perimeter game abandoned them for long stretches of the first half. Dejean-Jones knocked down a wing three-pointer with 50 seconds remaining and made it 37-34 at halftime. Iowa State had missed seven of its previous three-point attempts.

Iowa State was the Big 12’s third highest-ranked team behind seventh-ranked Texas and No. 11 Kansas.

“Now we get back and see what you’re made of as a team,” Hoiberg said. It’s how we respond to adversity. A lot of it hit us tonight.”

Tide takes third

Alabama overcame a three-point deficit and won the third-place game, 76-71 over Arizona State.

The Crimson Tide went on an 8-0 run that broke a 68-68 tie with 1:20 remaining, including four free throws from Levi Randolph. He made all 10 attempts for the game on his way to a game-high 28 points.

Free throws were critical all night for Alabama, which made 26 of 29.

“We had a lot of guys step up and knock them down,” Tide coach Anthony Grant said. “We felt like we had an opportunity to drive on them, to attack the rim and try to get ourselves to the line.”

All-tournament team

Maryland freshman guard Melo Trimble was chosen the tournament’s most valuable player and was joined on the all-tournament team by teammate Dez Wells, Iowa State’s Niang, Alabama’s Randolph and Arizona State’s Gerry Blakes.

Mules guard sets mark

Central Missouri guard Rakeem Dickerson scored 41 points and helped the Mules beat Quincy 90-84 Tuesday afternoon at the Sprint Center.

That’s the most points scored by a college player at the Sprint Center since the building opened in 2007. Memphis’ Roburt Sallie had 35 in an NCAA Tournament second-round victory over Cal State-Northridge in 2009.

Dickerson, a senior who transferred from Arkansas State, went 13 for 19 from the floor and 11 for 14 from the free-throw line.

This story was originally published November 25, 2014 at 11:30 PM with the headline "Maryland cools off Iowa State, wins CBE championship."