Bonus points made the difference for the ISU wrestling team on Sunday when it mattered most.

Iowa State, which had notched bonus points in just one win in its two duals leading up to Sunday, swept its final four matches with bonus points in the final two to rally to beat No. 21 North Dakota State 22-18.

Kyven Gadson and Matt Gibson pulled through for the Cyclones (1-2, 0-0 Big 12), tallying a major decision to pull within two team points followed by a pin to win it in dramatic fashion.

“To see those guys finish strong and do some of the things that we want to see is important,” said ISU coach Kevin Jackson. “We want to score bonus points, we want to get pins. We don’t want to be giving up bonus points or getting pinned in dual meets or any other time.”

Trailing the Bison (2-4, 0-0 WWC) 18-12 after eight matches, Gadson had Kallen Kleinschmidt turned for nearfall points on two separate occasions but could not secure the pin to tie the score of the dual meet.

“I don’t know where you were sitting in your proximity to the mat, but the guy looked pinned to me,” Jackson said. “He looked pinned for a long time and why we didn’t get that call, I have no idea.”

Gadson instead had to settle for a 17-4 major decision to pull the Cyclones to within two points. After the match, Gadson joked that this was the most points he has scored since high school having sat out the past two seasons due to a recurring shoulder injury.

“I kind of knew going into the match that me and Gibson were going to have to close it out if we wanted to win,” Gadson said. “So I went into the match — which I go into all matches — thinking, ‘You’ve got to pin him,’ or ‘You’ve got to get some bonus points for the team.'”

All Gibson needed was a win against Evan Knutson to complete the comeback, but got more than that.

After a scoreless first period of the heavyweight match, Gibson managed a reversal of Knutson before slipping him into a cradle for the eventual pin at the 4:07 mark.

“Kyven gave me some great momentum before the match,” Gibson said. “The crowd was going crazy, I felt excited, there was a lot of energy in the atmosphere and it definitely helped.”

Despite being down by 12 team points after six matches, the modest attendance of 1,837 was anything but modest in cheering on the final four Cyclones to victory.

At 174 pounds, Tanner Weatherman beat Kurtis Julson in a 3-1 decision with an aggressive offensive performance that was laden with hand-fighting and multiple scrambles.

Boaz Beard followed suit with an intense 7-5 victory against No. 18 Mac Stoll that went down to the wire. With five seconds remaining, Stoll managed a takedown but was unable to drive Beard’s riding time down to less than a minute, earning Beard the deciding point along with another point for a locked-hands call against Stoll.

The biggest change since the team’s season-opening dual loss to Old Dominion, Jackson said, is its close-knit connection that was absent at the beginning of the season.

“I see some bonding going on, I see some more cheering for each other and guys pulling together in building this team and building this program,” Jackson said. “These guys kind of started from scratch a little bit as far as trying to build back the culture and tradition and the mentality of which we’re founded on; and I’m starting to see more of that.”