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Thursday, December 23, 1999

Cyclones roll over Islanders
Second-half surge lifts Big 12 foe to 86-64 win
By Mark Zuckerman
Caller-Times
Caller-Times

Associated Press
Iowa State's Marcus Fizer (5) shoots over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Aaron Eneas Wednesday night during the Cyclones' 86-64 victory over the Islanders in the championship game of the Tribune Holiday Classic in Ames, Iowa. Fizer scored 28 points in the victory, securing tournament Most Valuable Player honors.
AMES, Iowa - For 20 minutes Wednesday night, it was OK to believe the unbelievable.
   Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, a first-year program in existence for one month, had Iowa State on the ropes, in the Cyclones' holiday tournament, in front of their fans.
   When the two teams headed to their respective locker rooms at halftime, the scoreboard showed the game knotted at 34, giving the Islanders reason to believe they could pull off a stunning upset.
   Twenty minutes later, A&M-Corpus Christi's dreams were dashed after receiving a serious dose of Big 12 power basketball at the hands of Iowa State, who pulled off an 86-64 victory in the championship game of the Tribune Holiday Classic before 8,707 at Hilton Coliseum.
   "I thought we were ready to play," Islander coach Ronnie Arrow said. "We just didn't execute in the second half."
   After giving the Cyclones (10-2) and their stunned fans a scare in the first half, the Islanders (5-5) fell victim to Iowa State's brute strength in the second half.
   Junior forward Marcus Fizer, one of the Big 12's top big men, with help from fellow junior forward Paul Shirley, combined to overpower A&M-Corpus Christi in the paint. Fizer scored a game-high 28 points and pulled down 17 rebounds, earning tournament MVP honors. The 6-foot-8, 265-pounder was too much for Islander forwards Aaron Eneas, Dustin Shultz and Damian Kirkaldy to handle.
   He even ran the break, wowing the crowd with a spinning drive around Kirkaldy, followed by a thunderous dunk while picking up a foul on Eneas.
   "Marcus Fizer is a man among boys," Arrow said. "He should be in the NBA right now."
   The 6-foot-9 Shirley, meanwhile, made his presence known in the paint by scoring 17 points of his own on 8-of-12 shooting.
   All told, the Cyclones manhandled A&M-Corpus Christi on the boards, winning the rebounding battle, 47-32.
   "They did a pretty good job boxing out people," said Islander forward Michael Hicks (19 points). "We wanted to win this ballgame. If we start off better, we come up with a win."
   With the victory, Iowa State picked up its sixth win in a row and captured the Holiday Classic championship trophy for the fourth time in five years.
   But it didn't come easy. The Cyclones shot just 34 percent from the field in the first half, and did not hit a 3-pointer all night, the first time in 86 games Iowa State was blanked from behind the arc.
   "I'm a fan of Ronnie Arrow," Cyclone head coach Larry Eustachy said. "I wasn't surprised when they beat Samford (Tuesday night in the tournament's first round). And I knew it would be this kind of a game. The score was much closer than it looked in the end."
   Playing in a hostile environment for the first time ever, the Islanders were overwhelmed in the early going, watching as Iowa State stormed out to a 10-1 lead. But a quick timeout called by Arrow settled his players down.
   A&M-Corpus Christi would rally back with runs of 7-2 and 10-0, capped by a Lee Denmon 3-pointer to give the Islanders their first lead, 18-16, midway through

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