The Iowa State (11-4) men’s basketball team was able to fend off a scrappy North Dakota State (5-10) squad at Hilton Coliseum on Saturday afternoon, winning 73-71 in the Cyclones’ non-conference finale.

Coach Greg McDermott’s Cyclone club overcame off the court distractions, lineup changes, and a flat start to beat the Bison, albeit closer than the fourth year coach would have liked.

“We lacked a lot of things today, a lot of things that North Dakota State brought to the table. There were a lot of reasons for us to be flat today, it’s been a tough week, but I think the strong can find a way to get through that,” McDermott said.

North Dakota State’s Josh Vaughan had hit six three pointers in the contest when the Bison guard got the ball off of a rebound and a shot at a victory with less than eight seconds remaining on the clock. Vaughan had 22 points on the night, but missed the shot at the buzzer that would have given him 25. He was one of four Bison players in double digits scoring, and added handily into the NDSU effort on the glass, out-rebounding the larger Cyclones 47-39.

“I was a little surprised and disappointed that we didn’t carry [strong] effort out onto the court today, but North Dakota State deserves a lot of the credit for that,” McDermott said.

The Cyclones were without starting center Justin Hamilton, and backup point guard Chris Colvin. Plus, the release of L.A. Pomlee from the team and the benching of injury riddled forward Jamie Vanderbeken left the Cyclones in dire straits of team depth. It took a role player to step up with all the problems, and to cover up a 6-for-20 shooting performance from star forward Craig Brackins in his 39 minutes on the floor.

“They were the tougher team, they played harder, they executed better, we were just lucky today we had Charles Boozer. Without him, we have no chance to win this game. I’m proud of him,” McDermott said.

Boozer was the man of the hour at the less-than-electric Hilton, filling in with a career-high 19 points off the bench, on 7-for-11 shooting in an energized effort that has come to epitomize the guard’s career as a Cyclone.

“It’s always fun to come in and try and bring energy to the crowd and bring energy to everybody on the team and just do whatever it takes to win the game,” Boozer said.

The Cyclones took a 42-35 lead into halftime, but struggled early on finding a comfortable pace, as cardinal and gold clad fans shifted in their seats when the Bison took a six point lead early in the first half. Fighting through the nerves and struggles, a one handed put back dunk by Brackins and a diving behind the back assist by Boozer let the crowd breathe a sigh of relief, but their calm would be shaken by the exciting finish.

“It’s the little stuff that we have to correct that let them into the game, and we need to get past that and figure that out,” Brackins said. “You just have to play through it, you can’t let things get you down.”

Iowa State takes on No. 2 Texas at Hilton Coliseum on Wednesday night, a step up in the competition from the middle of the road Summit Conference team the Cyclones slid past on Saturday. The team will look to rally from all the events from the past week, including getting snowed into Chicago after their 21 point loss to No. 5 Duke. The suspensions and injuries for the team haven’t affected the major scoring or rebounding leaders on the team, but the depth behind the stars is starting to hurt.

“We’ve handled just that we don’t want it to be a distraction for us, because we knew being stuck in Chicago we only had a day to prepare for this team, so we couldn’t let anything stand in our way to get ready for a game. We came together as a team and as a family,” Brackins said.