SAN ANTONIO — Iowa State’s 93-75 second-round NCAA Tournament victory over North Carolina-Central was an easy one, but a costly one. The Cyclones lost forward Georges Niang for the rest of the tournament with a broken foot.
“George has a non-displaced Jones fracture in his foot. He’ll be out obviously the rest of the tournament. We’ll miss him, but at the same time I believe in these guys,’’ said Iowa State coach Red Hoiberg, whose team will face sixth-seeded North Carolina at 5:15 pm Sunday in an East Regional third-round game.
“We have a heck of a task in front of us competing against and extremely athletic team that does an incredible job on the glass. I watched their dunk show after practice and it was pretty impressive. … I know we’ll come out ready on Sunday. Will it be good enough? I don’t know. But we’ll be ready to give our best effort.’’
Niang led five players in double figures with a team-high 24 points, six rebounds and four assists as Iowa State (27-7) shot a red-hot 63.6 percent from the floor and 9-of-17 from behind the arc in front of 11,690 fans at the AT & T Center.
“We didn’t defend with the tenacity or effort it takes to beat a team of that caliber,’’ UNC-Central coach LeVelle Motin said. “If you go in our locker room right now it’s like a morgue, because those kids walked in here expecting to win.
“There are no moral victories. That doesn’t count in our program, that doesn’t count in life. Either you win or lose, and the reality is this is America, and America loves winners.’’