For the second time this season, Iowa State lost to Kansas in overtime. 

After a missed frontend free throw from Korie Lucious and a make on the second, Kansas’ Elijah Johnson drove the length of the court with 11 seconds left, missed a jumper, got his own rebound and was fouled on the put-back while driving through Georges Niang, who fouled out. 

Johnson made both free throws, sending the game into overtime and the rest was history — or deja vu.

“They kick it back out and hit a shot, then come back down and hit another one and I thought we defended it pretty well,” said ISU coach Fred Hoiberg. “I thought Georges stepped in there and made a good play at the end, but it didn’t go our way. Then it gets to be a little bit of a scrum and another tough call. Then they hit the two and we go into overtime.

“Can’t fault our effort. Our guys went out and fought hard for 45 minutes, played this team two times to overtime, top-five team in the country. Unfortunate that we walk away with zero wins against them.”

Johnson led Kansas with an extraterrestrial closing 4:34 of the game, scoring 17 of the last 21 points in regulation for the Jayhawks — including 10 in the extra period — giving him an even 30 in in the second half and overtime and 39 on the night. 

“He was unbelievable,” said KU coach Bill Self. “He was the best guard and the best player in the country tonight. I’ve had some guys get 30 before, but I’ve never had a guy get 30 in a half.”

Monday’s game resembled that of a heavyweight prize fight with both teams exchanging blows the entire ballgame. The Cyclones (19-9, 9-6 Big 12) had the game at hand, but then let the game slip through their fingers after they held an 87-82 lead with only 40 seconds left in the game. 

After the game, Niang was asked whether he thought they had the game at hand after his 3-pointer gave them a five-point lead in the waning parts of the game.

“With the way this season’s gone — no,” Niang said. “But I thought we had a good chance to win it — especially at the end — but a call is a call. We’re men here and we’re going to move on and I promise you one thing, we’re going to come back even harder the next day.”

Then, Johnson canned back-to-back 3-pointers to bring it to 89-88, leading to Korie Lucious’ making one of two free throws and Johnson then tying the game and sending it to overtime. 

Iowa State broke the school record with 17 3-pointers, shooting 48 percent in regulation before missing all six in the extra period. On the other end, Kansas made 13 of their 25 shots from behind the arc as well, getting five from Travis Releford and six from Johnson. 

Niang, who came into the game averaging 11.4 points per game and shooting better than 53 percent from the field, made only three of his 17 shots, still finding a way to score 15 points, making three 3s and all six of his free throws. Niang did “facilitate” as Hoiberg put it, dishing out seven assists with no turnovers.   

“He had a couple of those that went in and out, and I think he showed you the type of kid he is not being afraid to step up and knock down that big one that put us up five with 40 seconds left,” Hoiberg said. “I thought he stepped up; even though he didn’t shoot the ball great, he made plays for his teammates all game long.”

Iowa State now has three games left and three games to improve their NCAA tournament resume before the Big 12 tournament. The stretch begins on the road against Oklahoma on Saturday, sitting at fourth in the conference in front of Iowa State.

The Cyclones have won three out of four games after losses in the Big 12 this season, against Kansas State, Texas and Baylor. 

“Our guys battled, I’ve been saying it all year. Hopefully we’ll have a lot of season left,” Hoiberg said. “We’ve got to bounce back with these last three and hopefully beyond that. I love our guys, they’re going to continue to fight back and I’m very confident in them.”