Coach Fred Hoiberg and the ISU men’s basketball team saw it. An upset of No. 9 Missouri was right there for the taking.

But 13-25 shooting from the free throw line and a 38-27 rebound deficit cost the Cyclones (12-4, 2-1 Big 12) in the 76-69 loss to Missouri (15-1, 2-1) on Wednesday.

“They made every hustle play in that first half,” Hoiberg said. “They got to the floor first, they made multiple efforts, we made one effort. That’s not good enough when you play a top-10 team.”

Iowa State saw a two-point lead at halftime devolve into a seven-point lead for Missouri midway through the second half, and ultimately the seven-point loss.

Second-chance opportunities were plentiful for the Tigers, who tallied 12 points from 11 offensive rebounds. Hoiberg and his players both used the word “effort” to describe the advantage Missouri had in the game.

“[It was] just an effort thing,” said forward Royce White. “Me personally, I just didn’t give the right effort.”

White was also disappointed in his own performance from the free throw line, where he went 2-8, with two of those shots failing to touch the rim.

While Hoiberg didn’t have anything to say about the team’s free throw shooting, other than “we’ll work on it,” White used one word to describe what he felt the issue was with him and the team from the line Wednesday night.

“Focus,” White said. “For me, it’s been a frustrating year altogether trying to find the right rhythm and right stroke and right hand placement.

“But as a team I’d just say [it was] focus and we’ve just got to do better. I think we know that we kind of killed ourselves from the line today.”

The Cyclones got a strong offensive performance from Scott Christopherson — whose half-court buzzer-beater gave Iowa State a 38-36 halftime lead — who finished the game with 19 points on 4-6 shooting from 3-point range.

Christopherson led the way for a 52.2 percent shooting night from 3-point range for the team,  but the good shooting was not enough to combat Missouri. Hoiberg said the effort plays the Tigers made came down to them being tougher.

“I thought it was fool’s gold when he threw that three-quarter-court shot in,” Hoiberg said. “We could’ve come out of the locker room and had some momentum and corrected things, [but] they made the effort plays all night.”

In addition to their second-chance points, the Tigers finished ahead of the Cyclones in both points in the paint — Missouri won that battle 40-20 — and points off 13 ISU turnovers, where Missouri ended with a 16-11 advantage.

Going forward, Hoiberg and his squad know that shooting alone will not win games in conference play.

“When you play against a team like that, you can’t afford to get out-rebounded by 12 in the first half,” Christopherson said. “You can’t afford to let them shoot 59 percent in the second half. When it came down to money time, they executed and we didn’t, and that was the difference in the game.”

For Hoiberg, the loss was especially disappointing, considering the buzz surrounding the Cyclones’ 2-0 start to conference play. Iowa State had its chances, and both Hoiberg and his players acknowledged as much after the game.

“It’s disappointing because I felt we should’ve won the game,” Hoiberg said. “That’s the hard thing, because I felt we threw this one away.”