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

UNDATED (AP) — Copycat league: NFL players might have run out of creative celebrations. Or they’re just paying homage to the players they grew up watching. Either way, they’re going old school in recreating some of the over-the-top celebrations of yesteryear.

AMES, Iowa (AP) — Marial Shayok scored a career-high 26 points, freshman Talen Horton-Tucker had 26 as well and Iowa State handled Texas Southern 85-73 for its third straight win. Nick Weiler-Babb posted 13 points with 13 rebounds for the Cyclones (3-0), who next to Hawaii for Maui Invitational games against Arizona, either third-ranked Gonzaga or Illinois and then an opponent yet to be determined.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Chiefs defense has struggled most of the season, often getting bailed out by their big-play offense. But when Patrick Mahomes and Co. bogged down against Arizona on Sunday, it was the defense that rose to the occasion. They sacked Josh Rosen five times, picked him off twice and led Kansas City to a 26-14 victory at Arrowhead Stadium.

UNDATED (AP) — Iowa State running back David Montgomery and Baylor defensive end Greg Roberts will miss the first half of their teams’ games this week. They were in a scuffle that led to their ejections in the second half of a testy game between the Cyclones and Bears. Montgomery is the second-leading rusher in the Big 12. He will miss the first half of 18th-ranked Iowa State’s game at No. 13 Texas. Roberts will sit out the first half of Baylor’s home finale against rival TCU.

UNDATED (AP) — The Big 12 is down to four teams and two big head-to-head matchups to determine who will play in the conference championship game. Sixth-ranked Oklahoma or No. 7 West Virginia will play in the title game. That means they could play each other in consecutive weeks. They play each other in a regular season finale. No. 13 Texas and No. 18 Iowa State are also still in title contention. They play each other Saturday in Austin.

The Iowa State-Kansas State football game on Nov. 24 at Jack Trice Stadium will kickoff at either 6 or 7 p.m. CT.

The game will be televised by either FS1 (6 p.m. kick) or Fox (7 p.m. kick).

The Iowa Hawkeyes road game against the Illinois Fighting Illini will kickoff at 2:30pm this upcoming Saturday, November 17th. We’ll have coverage of the game from Champaign, Ill on the Hawkeye Radio Network with pregame underway at 12:30pm.

Jess Schaben

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State senior outside hitter Jess Schaben has been named the Big 12 Co-Offensive Player of the Week, the conference announced Monday afternoon. Schaben, who shares the title with Oklahoma setter Kylee McLaughlin this week, earned her first weekly award of the season, her second Offensive Player of the Week of her career and her eighth weekly award of her career across all three awards.

Schaben was the catalyst for the Cyclones in the two matches last week. At Baylor on Wednesday, Schaben notched a season-high 26 kills at .344 hitting along with eight digs and four blocks. In Saturday’s 3-1 win over West Virginia, Schaben followed that up with a match-high 22 kills and 18 digs, while also posting four more blocks in the victory.

For the week, the Defiance, Iowa native averaged 6.00 kills per set at .317 hitting percentage, 3.25 digs per set and 1.00 blocks per set. In Iowa State’s last nine matches, Schaben has over 10 kills in every match along with six double-doubles, averaging 4.25 kills and 2.97 digs per set in that stretch.

Schaben and the Cyclones are back in action on Wednesday night at Oklahoma. First serve between the Cyclones and Sooners will be at 7 p.m.

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State continued its undefeated start to the campaign, defeating Northern Illinois 70-60 Sunday afternoon at Hilton Coliseum. The Cyclones are now 2-0 on the season, advancing to the Preseason WNIT semifinals on Tuesday inside Hilton Coliseum. The Huskies are now 1-1 on the year.

The ISU effort was led by Bridget Carleton, with the senior getting a double-double for the second-straight contest en route to finishing with 21 points, 13 rebounds and six assists. Kristin Scott came off the bench to contribute 15 points, 11 of which came in the first half. All 12 of Madison Wise’s points came in the second half.

How It Happened

Iowa State scored the first six points of the game and did not look back from there. Kristin Scott came off the bench with a strong cameo, running off seven-straight points as part of a 10-0 ISU run which opened the lead to 20-6.

The Cyclones were able to get production in the paint, as 30 of the home team’s 41 first-half points came in the paint. Scott’s 11 first-half points were vital to that, along with Inès Nezerwa coming off the bench to contribute four.

NIU came out of the locker room strong, cutting the ISU lead to single digits at 43-35, but the Cyclones got going from deep, as Bridget Carleton and Madison Wise hit 3-pointers as part of a 10-2 run to bring ISU’s lead back to 53-37.

The Cyclones were off to a slow start to begin the final quarter, which saw NIU cut the home side’s lead to single digits at 63-55. However, Wise put the game out of sight with a 3-pointer and a fast-break lay-up via a coast-to-coast run from Nezerwa to make it 68-55.

Up Next

Iowa State will play the winner of the New Mexico-Auburn game on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. inside Hilton Coliseum. The game will be televised on Cyclones.TV Powered by Mediacom.