CHICAGO – Facing the stiffest competition yet in this young season, the ISU men’s basketball team took down the Saint Louis Billikens 65-54 in the semifinal game of the Chicago Invitational.

The Cyclones were forced to deal with the backdoor cut offense of long time coach Rick Majerus, a different style than coach Greg McDermott’s team has seen during his tenure in Ames.

Guided by 16 points from both forward Craig Brackins and guard Diante Garrett, Iowa State pulled away from the Billikens in the second half of a scrappy affair that held the Cyclones to their lowest scoring total of the season.

“We found a way to win an ugly game. We missed some point blank shots in the first half that we normally are going to make, but we stayed with it and finally got our offense clicking midway through the second half,” McDermott said.

Up 30-27 on Saint Louis at halftime, McDermott’s undefeated club was staring at a combined 15 turnover and 18 foul first half, and not wanting to look back.

“The first thing Coach Mac said was, ‘Losing is not an option for us.’ So we had to come out with some intensity and try to play at our tempo,” Garrett said.

Majerus’ Atlanic-10 conference team shot 1-for-16 from three point range against the talented offense of Iowa State, a number that wouldn’t affect that game’s outcome as the coach would have liked.

“They were making some good shots and our guys are emotionally immature in the sense to respond,” Majerus said. “I haven’t seen [No. 1] Kansas in person, but if there is better material with depth [in the Big 12], that would surprise me.”

The style of Saint Louis gave the Cyclones early trouble, as did their 10-for-31 first half shooting woes, but capitalizing on a shockingly low five points off jump shots from SLU, were able to withstand the pressure.

Saint Louis’ inability to hit from outside the paint hindered their chances at a comeback, and eventually put the game out of reach as the Cyclones hit on six of their 14 3-point attempts, including two makes each from Brackins and guard Lucca Staiger.

“They really demonstrated their intensity with their backdoor cuts, staying tough with the ball and they didn’t let our press get to them very much in the first half,” Brackins said of the Billikens.

LaRon Dendy, a key substitute at forward for the Cyclones reaggravated his knee injury that kept him out of the last two Iowa State games. McDermott commented that the 6-foot-9 transfer’s knee tightened up worse than prior to his benching, and his status for tomorrow evening’s championship is questionable.

Iowa State will face the winner of the 7:30 p.m. match-up between Notre Dame from the Big East, and hometown favorite Northwestern, from the Big 10. While a potential tournament title game against Northwestern would be featured on the Big Ten Network at 7 p.m. Saturday night from the UIC-Pavilion, taking on Notre Dame would feature a match-up between Brackins and first team All-American forward Luke Harangody, a one-on-one feature not usually seen early in the season.

McDermott knows the hype, but his focus can’t be placed until the Cyclones find out their opponent.

“Our focus has been 100 percent St. Louis. We’ll watch this game and we’re just happy to be in the championship, we don’t care who we play,” McDermott said.

Iowa State will tip-off at 7 p.m. from the University of Illinois-Chicago Pavilion for the championship of the Chicago Invitational.