No. 10 Kansas State (19-4, 6-3) overcame a halftime deficit and 30.6-percent shooting in the opening 20 minutes to beat the Cyclones in a Big 12 conference game, 79-75.  The Wildcats opened the second half on a 17-2 run, and the Cyclones weren’t able to sniff the lead for the remainder of the game. 

“I felt we had a game plan and we were executing it, but there were a couple here and there minutes that we didn’t execute them, and I think that was the reason for the result at the end,” forward Craig Brackins said.  

Brackins led the Cyclones in scoring for the third consecutive game, tallying 29 points on 11-for-22 shooting, but was outshined by the Wildcats’ guard Denis Clemente, who put in 30 points of his own for the winning side. The 6-foot-1 senior from Puerto Rico hit timely 3-pointers over and over for coach Frank Martin’s team, finishing a proficient 6-for-8 from behind the arc.

“He had big shots against us here last year, in a game that was very similar to this one,” said coach Greg McDermott. “He’s a senior, and that’s what you want your seniors to do, step up when the team needs them. He’s a load, and every time we made a mistake he made us pay.

“We’re a good three point shooting team, and we certainly didn’t shoot it well today.”

The Cyclones yet again missed scoring from their guard positions, with starting backcourters Diante Garrett and Scott Christopherson, and their backups, Dominique Buckley and Chris Colvin combining for just 21 points. McDermott insinuated earlier in the week that he would consider making a change to the lineup with Christopherson’s mononucleosis and ineffective play, but after the game McDermott was disappointed with lapses in focus from his under-staffed team. 

“In the locker room, I didn’t even talk about minutes, I talked about seconds,” McDermott said. “That’s what it is. Losing your focus for a second. I thought we competed harder today than we did against Baylor, for the most part. We just have lapses in concentration, that are really short lapses, but they can be devastating.”

The uniforms for each team reflected opposites, with the Cyclones wearing white jerseys with pink numbers and shoes for Breast Cancer Awareness week, and the Wildcats donning their road black jerseys with purple outlines, and the play of the two halves on Saturday were just as opposite. 

The crowd of 12,649 in Ames held onto hope that McDermott would get his first victory over a ranked team since his arrival at Iowa State (0-18) in the first half, with the Cyclones outshooting, and outrebounding Kansas State, and even giving up a recent low four turnovers in the opening half. That all changed once the teams left the locker room, and Iowa State’s now-typical slow second half start gave the visitors an insurmountable edge.

“We made a couple turnovers that led to baskets during that stretch, and we lost Clemente in transition that led to a couple three point shots. Those four plays—I thought turned the momentum of the game,” McDermott said.  

Iowa State was down 11 points with 1:13 left in the ball game, and desperation three pointers from Marquis Gilstrap and Diante Garrett dropped, extending the life of the ball game. At the end, even a Garrett steal with 11 seconds left and the Cyclones down four couldn’t translate into points, with misses coming from every direction, and Brackins and company leaving the floor disappointed yet again. 

“I feel like we’re all focused, we look into each other’s eyes and know at we’re all there for each other, no matter what. I really don’t have the answer for that now, because I feel like we’re all locked in out there,” Brackins said.

The Cyclones loss drops them to a spot above last place in the Big 12, and extends their losing streak to Kansas State to eight games.  

Iowa State will attempt to rebound from the loss with a road game against the Missouri Tigers on Wednesday. Missouri just had its 32 game home winning streak snapped last week.