Picking up his third personal foul with two and a half minutes left in the first half, Chris Allen’s chances at helping his team come back from a seven-point deficit seemed grim.

But ISU coach Fred Hoiberg stuck with Allen in the second-half starting lineup and the senior guard delivered, scoring 12 points and pulling down five boards. This set the stage for Royce White’s game-winning jump shot in the final seconds of Iowa State’s 72-70 win against Kansas State on Tuesday night.

“He’s a fifth-year senior and a good player — that’s what they do,” said Kansas State coach Frank Martin of Allen. “They don’t fold their bags and go home. They come out and make the plays when they are supposed to make the plays.”

Aside from pouring in 14 points in a 24-point rout of Texas Tech, Allen had scored only 11 points in his last four games.

“I put Chris back in trusting he wouldn’t pick up his third [personal foul]. He went out there and unfortunately he got it, but then he comes out in the second half and was just really aggressive,” Hoiberg said. “He got in there and made some pretty good layups. He played probably his best game since Texas Tech.”

The 6-foot-3-inch guard calmly hit two free throws after being fouled by KSU guard Angel Rodriguez. Thirty-seven seconds later, Allen caught a pass from ISU guard Scott Christopherson on the right wing and buried a 3 to cut what was at one point a 14-point second-half deficit down to two.

“I was just trying to stay active. I knew that if I just stayed active and stayed moving, then eventually I was going to get a good shot and knock it down,” Allen said.

Allen drained two more jump shots in the final five minutes of the game, finishing the half 4-of-6 from the field in the second stanza.

“He came out in the second half and didn’t miss a shot,” Martin said. “He shoots a 3. Maybe he misses. But he wasn’t going to miss. I knew it was going in.”

Hoiberg and Allen had a long talk earlier in the week and he responded with a solid two days of practice and what the coach called a “big-time” game.

“As I was walking to the bench, all the coaches were kind of saying the same thing, ‘Chris, keep your head in it,'” Allen said. “When I was on the bench, in certain situations I was looking at where I could see myself in the game and doing stuff, so I kept my head in it and I wasn’t wandering off.

“I just tried to stay in it as much as possible and when my chance came to get back in and do something, I stepped up.”

Iowa State’s two-point win against Mississippi Valley State in the nonconference finale was again mentioned Tuesday night as the turning point for this ISU squad.

Allen recognized the growth of the team since that game as it is now halfway through its 18-game conference slate.

“A while ago, we probably would have gotten beat by 30 tonight how we [were] playing back then and how our confidence was,” Allen said. “But now everyone is on the same page. I feel like everybody is trusting in each other and trusting in what coach is telling us. It’s coming along, it’s coming together.”