EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Nick Ward used his power to gain position and his touch to score, putting together a perfect game from the field.

Ward made all 10 of his shots, scored a career-high 26 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead No. 10 Michigan State to a 90-68 win over No. 18 Iowa on Monday night.

“There’s not a lot I can yell at him about,” coach Tom Izzo said. “He did miss some free throws.”

The 6-foot-9, 245-pound Ward, who was 6 of 11 from the line, was simply too much for the Hawkeyes to handle.

“He’s real physical down there and they were getting him on the high-low,” Iowa center Luka Garza said.

That type of offensive attack against a zone may have helped the Spartans when they lost to Syracuse in the second round of the 2018 NCAA tournament.

“We’ve been working on it all season,” Ward said. “Since the Syracuse game, we’ve done that every day.”

The Spartans (7-2, 2-0 Big Ten) trailed for more than six minutes in the first half and were behind by as much as six points before a Ward-led surge gave them a 43-33 lead at halftime.

The Hawkeyes (6-2, 0-2) had no hope for a comeback because they missed 19 of 20 shots to open the second half.

What went wrong?

“Pretty much everything,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said.

Michigan State’s Xavier Tillman scored a career-high 14 points and had eight rebounds off the bench. Kenny Goins scored a career-high 19, surpassing his combined points from the previous five games, had a career-high seven assists and grabbed 12 rebounds. Joshua Langford added 14 for the Spartans.

Iowa’s Tyler Cook scored 15 points, Isaiah Moss had 13 points and Jordan Bohannon added 11.

The Hawkeyes, who came into the game averaging 82.6 points, made just 33 percent of their shots and allowed the Spartans to connect on 52 percent of their shots.

“We made it really difficult for them inside and out,” Tillman said.

UP NEXT
Iowa: Host the rival Cyclones on Thursday night.
Michigan State: Plays at Florida on Saturday.

AMES, Iowa (AP) — The thinking when Iowa State suspended sophomore forward Cam Lard until December was that the Cyclones would need to find a way to survive until they got their uber-talented big man back.

Well, December is here — and the Cyclones have improved so quickly that Lard might find minutes hard to come by.

Marial Shayok scored 20 points, Michael Jacobson had 15 with 10 rebounds and Iowa State rolled past North Dakota State 81-59 for its fourth straight win.

Nick Weiler-Babb scored 11 points with eight rebounds for the Cyclones (7-1), who shot 50 percent from the floor.

Lard played just 10 minutes, scoring two points with two blocks, with Jacobson seizing a starting job in the frontcourt behind a brilliant start. Jacobson has posted back-to-back double-doubles, and he’s scored at least 10 points in all eight games.

“I’m not planning on tinkering too much. I like the way we’re playing,” Iowa State coach Steve Prohm said. “On both ends of the floor.”

Iowa State wasn’t pushed in this one.

The Cyclones cruised to a 16-point halftime lead and then opened the second half with a 10-2 run to jump ahead 53-29. Back-to-back buckets by Shayok made it a 67-37 game with just over 12 minutes to go.

Lard and Zoran Talley each returned from seven-game suspensions against the Bison.

Talley — wearing a black mask to protect a broken nose — had four points and two assists, and the pair hooked up on an alley-oop dunk with about 11 minutes left, giving Lard his first points of 2018-19 in emphatic fashion.

“I’ve got to get in game shape. But besides that, I’m just ready to play,” Talley said.

Rocky Kreuser had 13 points to lead the Bison (2-7), who made the score respectable with a late 19-2 run as Prohm experimented with his lineup.

Prohm also said that star Lindell Wigginton and forward Solomon Young will be out at least another week or so but that they could be back against Drake on Dec. 15.

UP NEXT
North Dakota State hosts Eastern Washington on Saturday.

Iowa State plays at No. 18 Iowa on Thursday. The Hawkeyes got blown out by No. 10 Michigan State 90-68 on Monday — and star freshman Joe Wieskamp hurt his ankle in the loss. “Go out there, get a Big Ten win, come back home (and) make it a Cyclones state,” Talley said.

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Boys Basketball

Bondurant Farrar 66, Creston 62

Boyer Valley, Dunlap 62, West Monona, Onawa 38

Girls Basketball

AC/GC 64, Grand View Christian 30

West Monona, Onawa 61, Boyer Valley, Dunlap 39

Whiting 56, Boys Town, Neb. 45

Here is the latest Mid-America sports news from The Associated Press

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Nick Ward made all 10 of his shots, scored a career-high 26 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead No. 10 Michigan State to a 90-68 win over No. 18 Iowa. The Spartans trailed for more than six minutes in the first half and were behind by as much as six before a Ward-led surge gave them a 43-33 lead at halftime. The Hawkeyes had no hope for a comeback because they missed 18 of 19 shots to open the second half.

AMES, Iowa (AP) — Marial Shayok scored 20 points, Michael Jacobson had 15 with 10 rebounds and Iowa State rolled past North Dakota State 81-59 for its fourth straight win. Nick Weiler-Babb scored 11 points with eight rebounds for the Cyclones (7-1), who shot 50 percent from the floor.

UNDATED (AP) — The NFL’s handling of violence accusations against Kareem Hunt shows the league still reacts heavily based on public perception. The league and Chiefs quickly changed their approach toward the star running back after video was released showing Hunt pushing and kicking a woman at a Cleveland hotel. The league has tried to shift following its mishandling of the Ray Rice domestic violence case in 2014.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kareem Hunt went unclaimed on NFL waivers three days after he was released by the Kansas City Chiefs. The star running back was cut Friday after TMZ released a video showing him pushing and kicking a woman during a February incident at a Cleveland hotel. Police did not charge Hunt with a crime, but the Chiefs released him for being untruthful with them about what happened.

UNDATED (AP) — The NFL took a break from record-breaking offensive explosions and soaring television ratings with a speedbump of bad officiating and bad looks in Week 13. Numerous bad calls affected several games. And the league had to defend itself and its investigation after TMZ released video of Kareem Hunt hitting a woman.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Michigan’s impressive wins against ranked opponents have pushed the Wolverines to No. 5 in the latest AP Top 25 poll. The top four of the poll remained unchanged with Gonzaga at the top, followed by Kansas, Duke and Virginia. The poll also added three new teams in No. 20 Arizona State, No. 24 Nebraska and No. 25 Furman. It is Furman’s first appearance in the AP poll.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Chiefs could have been sidetracked by the controversy that engulfed now-departed running back Kareem Hunt. Instead, they seemed galvanized in a 40-33 victory in Oakland that kept them in the race for the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs. Spencer Ware and a host of others filled in admirably as the Chiefs hardly missed an offensive beat.

OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — The Baltimore Ravens are still fighting to end a three-year playoff drought even though they are riding their longest winning streak of the season. The Ravens hold a one-game lead for the sixth and final postseason spot in the AFC. Baltimore is within a half-game of the first-place Pittsburgh Steelers and rookie quarterback Lamar Jackson has emerged as a playmaker. He has led Baltimore to three straight victories since taking over for injured starter Joe Flacco.

CHICAGO (AP) — The skidding Chicago Bulls fired coach Fred Hoiberg on Monday and promoted associate head coach Jim Boylen in hopes of lifting the team from the bottom of the standings.

The Bulls have been hit hard by injuries this season, but at 5-19 only two teams have worse records.

“Decisions like this one are never easy to make, however I felt this was the right choice for our organization at this time,” said Jim Paxson, the team’s executive vice president of basketball operations. “After a thorough evaluation, I elected to make this move with the overall development of our team in mind. As a team, I believe it is imperative that we make unfaltering strides in the right direction and build the right habits to help put our players in the best position to evolve not only now, but into the future.”

The Bulls have been riddled by injuries all year. Denzel Valentine (ankle), Kris Dunn (knee) and Bobby Portis (knee) have missed significant time and forward Lauri Markkanen didn’t make his season debut until this past weekend because of an elbow injury.

The 7-foot Markkanen is perhaps the centerpiece of Chicago’s rebuilding plan, but Hoiberg won’t be around to see it through. He finishes his tenure in Chicago, where he played for four seasons and had a long history with general manager Gar Forman, with a record of 115-155 (.426) and a single playoff appearance, when the Bulls were ousted in the first round by Boston in 2017.

Hoiberg was named Chicago’s head coach in June 2015 after spending five seasons at Iowa State, where the former player was nicknamed “The Mayor.” Hoiberg went 115-56 at Iowa State, including four straight NCAA Tournament appearances and back-to-back Big 12 tournament titles.

He replaced Tom Thibodeau, who was fired after five seasons, and the hope was that the free-wheeling style he used with the Cyclones would work in the NBA and that he would fare better than another former Iowa State coach, Tim Floyd, who went 49-190 record in three-plus seasons with the Bulls.

The circumstances were different, but the results were disappointing. Derrick Rose, Jimmy Butler, Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic were among the departures as the Bulls tried to find the right formula.

Boylen is a veteran but this will be his first time as an NBA head coach; he spent four years as the head coach at the University of Utah. Over 20 years in the NBA, he also has been an assistant in Houston, Golden State, Milwaukee, Indiana and San Antonio.

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Here is the latest Mid-America sports news from The Associated Press

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw four touchdown passes to join Peyton Manning and Tom Brady as the only QBs to reach the 40 TD mark through 12 games. The Kansas City Chiefs won their first game since releasing star running back Kareem Hunt by beating the Oakland Raiders 40-33. Spencer Ware replaced Hunt as starter and scored on a direct snap on fourth-and-goal from the 1 in the third quarter. Mahomes did most of the rest of the damage against the Raiders with his arm.

ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes and Kareem Hunt entered the NFL as part of Kansas City’s 2017 draft class and quickly formed a tight friendship as they tried to build the Chiefs into a Super Bowl contender. Mahomes now must do it without Hunt, released over the weekend after a video surfaced that showed him knocking over and kicking a woman in a Cleveland hotel hallway in February.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Running back Kareem Hunt has acknowledged misleading the Kansas City Chiefs about his role in a February assault in a Cleveland hotel that ultimately led to his release this week. During a live interview with ESPN the NFL’s reigning rushing champion also said that league officials never spoke to him about the incident while conducting their own investigation. Hunt was released by the Chiefs on Friday.

UNDATED (AP) — In case you missed it in Week 13 of the NFL season: Now the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers will get to see how they’ll fare with a head coach other Mike McCarthy. And the question around the league becomes whether any other coaches will get fired before the season is over.

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Bill Snyder is retiring as the coach of Kansas State, ending a three-decade relationship that included 27 years on the sideline interrupted only by a brief retirement. The 79-year-old coach has been considering his future since the Wildcats finished a 5-7 season with a disheartening loss to Iowa State that eliminated them from bowl eligibility. The school announced that a search for his replacement would begin immediately.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — James Palmer Jr. had 23 points and Nebraska opened up an early 11-point lead, then held off Illinois for a 75-60 win in the Big Ten conference opener for both teams. Nebraska (7-1) came out hot, hitting its first three field goals and all six of its free throws to go up 13-2 just 2½ minutes into the game.