Kentucky
No. 2 seed Iowa State shuts down No. 7 Kentucky in 82-63 NCAA tourney victory
ST. LOUIS — Tamin Lipsey knew he had to step up for Iowa State with All-America forward Joshua Jefferson sitting on the bench, his sprained left ankle still encased in a boot, as the Cyclones played Kentucky on Sunday for a spot in the Sweet 16.
Lipsey, who grew up in the shadows of the Iowa State campus in Ames, answered with the finest game of his four-year career.
The senior guard poured in a career-high 26 points, tied a career high with 10 assists, and led a suffocating defense that shut down the Wildcats in the second half, allowing the second-seeded Cyclones to pull away for an 82-63 victory in the NCAA Tournament.
“All the guys knew we had to step up in different ways,” Lipsey said, “however that presented to us.”
Lipsey didn’t do it alone, of course — he needed someone scoring to pile up all those assists. Milan Momcilovic scored 20 points and Nate Heise, getting the start in Jefferson’s place, added 12 to help the Cyclones (29-7) advance to a Midwest Region semifinal against either third-seeded Virginia or No. 6 seed Tennessee on Friday night in Chicago.
It will be the eighth Sweet 16 trip for the Cyclones and the third under T.J. Otzelberger, though the question now is whether they will be whole for it. Jefferson, their second-leading scorer and top rebounder, is scheduled to have an MRI exam on Monday.
“We’ll see how that goes and take it from there,” Otzelberger said.
Kentucky (22-14) jumped to a 20-9 lead in the opening minutes Sunday before Iowa State fought back to take a 31-30 halftime lead.
The Wildcats were still within 46-40 with 13½ minutes to play when the Cyclones forced three of the Wildcats’ 20 turnovers in quick succession. They converted all three into baskets at the other end, part of a decisive 13-1 run, which not only allowed Iowa State to seize control but also seemed to finally deflate Kentucky.
The Wildcats had been buzzing after a buzzer-beater from Otega Oweh forced overtime in a first-round victory over Santa Clara.
“We had a tough time finding baskets and more importantly we had a real tough time getting a stop,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said. “They shot 50 percent in the second half from 3, and they played really well. You’re not going to win games when you give up 51 in the second half, and there’s a lot of reasons that happened.”
Oweh followed up his 35-point performance against the Broncos with 18 against the Cyclones, playing most of the second half in foul trouble. Denzel Aberdeen led the Wildcats with 20 points, though the pair of guards didn’t get a whole lot more help.
“We didn’t play fully hard for the full 40 minutes,” Aberdeen said, “and we had to do a better job.”
For two teams that can score in bunches, there was little elegance for much of their first matchup since the 2012 NCAA tourney, when the Wildcats beat Iowa State in the second round on their way to winning the national championship.
The Cyclones missed their first 11 tries from beyond the 3-point arc. Kentucky had 12 turnovers in the first half.
“We got a little disoriented,” Pope said, “and that’s what Iowa State does. They increased their pressure and we turned it over 12 times in the first half, and kind of contributed to our own demise.”
Iowa State eventually began driving to the basket and picking up fouls, and generated offense from the free-throw line until its shots started to fall. That began just before the break, and Heise’s buzzer-beating 3 gave the Cyclones a 31-30 advantage.
They went on to outscore Kentucky 51-33 after halftime to coast into the semifinals of the Midwest Region.
“We knew we had to be at our best. I’m proud of our guys,” Otzelberger said. “Felt like the game didn’t start the way we’d like but on defense, our pressure as the game wore on paid dividends for us. We generated turnovers and scored off our defense.”
Up next
Iowa State and Virginia have split four previous meetings, though the Cavaliers won the most recent matchup and the only one in the NCAA Tournament. The Cavaliers cruised 84-71 in the Sweet 16 on March 25, 2016, before losing to Syracuse in the Elite Eight.
The Cyclones beat Tennessee during the 1969 season but they’ve lost the last two to the Volunteers, the first during a tournament in December 1977 and the most recent on January 27, 2018, during the Big 12-SEC Challenge.
WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ky. (LEX NEWS) — One person died and several others were injured when an EF-2 tornado tore through Washington County on May 30, 2025.
A year later, Emergency Management Services Director Kevin Devine is now reflecting on the scene left behind.
“It looked like a bomb went off in several houses,” Devine said.
The tornado left widespread destruction in its path.
Covering Kentucky
Community mourns Ron Hill, victim of Friday’s Washington County tornado
“It was just trees mangled, a house blew off, windshields, vehicles cracked and moved,” Devine said.
The tornado touched down on Long Run Road, a rural one-lane road. Crews used chainsaws to cut through debris to clear a path for ambulances.
Access to the area proved difficult for emergency responders.
“It had rained a lot so if you got off the road a little bit you had a chance of getting stuck,” Devine said.
Devine, who has served as director of Emergency Management Services for more than two decades, called the response his toughest experience in that role.
“It was a challenge getting in and out and getting people in and out because everybody’s trying to go both ways,” Devine said.
The search and rescue operation took nearly 100 volunteers from multiple counties.
Now, as the county plans for future severe weather events, Devine said he does not see Washington County adding to its six warning sirens already in place — outside of some additional communication efforts with neighboring communities.
“We’re such a rural county, we can’t really put them next to every house,” Devine said. “With the news the way it is you now can get your warnings on your phone pretty easily.”
At the site on the hill above Long Run Road, recovery has taken a personal shape. Tonya Orberson lost her fiancé, Ronnie Hill, in the tornado. According to Devine, she now has a new home, complete with a basement.
Devine credited the community for making that recovery possible.
“They really pitched in and helped,” Devine said.
Jim Obergefell talks LGBTQ+ rights 10 years after Supreme Court ruling
Jim Obergefell, the lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that legalized gay marriage nationwide, looks back on its impact 10 years later.
Happy Pride Month!
About 9% of U.S. adults identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or something other than heterosexual, and some places are safer for and more welcoming of those in the LGBTQ+ community.
Here’s how Kentucky ranks compared to other states.
How Kentucky ranks for being welcoming, safe for LGBTQ+ members
Kentucky ranks No. 35 out of 50 states for being welcoming of the LGBTQ+ community, according to Out Leadership’s State LGBTQ+ Business Climate Index. While the commonwealth has climbed eight spots since 2019, it earned about 41 out of 100 possible points, receiving a B- grade.
The report comes as national scores continue to decline. The average state score has fallen for four consecutive years and now sits at 53.1, with 26 states scoring below 60, Out Leadership founder and CEO Todd Sears told USA TODAY.
The index suggests acceptance of LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. has declined in recent years, reversing progress that once improved the well-being and safety of LGBTQ+ communities, Sears said.
“When we started this index eight years ago, the goal was to show Americans the issues that were still live but invisible — HIV criminalization, conversion therapy, where state legislators actually stood — because once marriage equality passed, a lot of people assumed the work was done. It wasn’t,” Sears said. “What we’ve documented since is a genuine regression.”
This year, Out Leadership added 12 new indicators measuring the effects of policies affecting LGBTQ+ people, including restrictions on bathroom access, pronoun and name use and gender-affirming care for adults. Sears said the additions were made to better capture policies that have increasingly affected LGBTQ+ residents and their families.
“For the last several years, we simply weren’t capturing forces that were already hitting LGBTQ+ citizens and their families,” Sears said.
SafeHome.org also ranks Kentucky on the lower side for LGBTQ+ safety. The state ranks No. 27 out of 51 jurisdictions, including Washington, D.C., and received a score of 80.7 and a B- grade.
The rankings are based on a score that combines state laws affecting LGBTQ+ residents and hate crime data. Researchers evaluated laws across several policy areas using input from a survey of more than 1,000 LGBTQ+ people and paired the results with FBI hate crime statistics before calculating the final scores.
Contributing: Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY Network. Reach Marina Johnson at Marina.Johnson@courier-journal.com.
Kentucky got consecutive home runs from Jayce Tharnish and Tyler Bell to take a 9-6 lead over West Virginia. Chase Alderman and Nile Adcock combined to record five consecutive scoreless innings. The Bat Cats were three outs away from reaching — and hosting — a super regional.
West Virginia had other plans.
Free passes, a balk, and a three-run home run from Paul Schoenfield plated five runs in the ninth. It was absolute chaos in Kendrick Family Ballpark. Kentucky snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
That sets up one final game between the Wildcats and the Mountaineers again, but this one could sting for some time. Jeff Drummond and myself are reacting to the crushing loss by taking a look at what went wrong, how it got off the rails so quickly. and what could be on the horizon for tomorrow.
Smash that play button.
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