Nine runs is good for a baseball game and nine goals is great for a hockey game, but to score nine points in a half of basketball is unheard of.

Iowa State set a Big 12 record on Wednesday night when it held Colorado to just nine points in the first half in a 70-42 win.

Great Iowa State defense mixed in with poor shooting from the Buffaloes was the perfect recipe for the infamous record that Colorado now holds.

“We went into the locker room and were excited we came out like that. Then we said we can’t let this one go, this is our first time to finish off a team and keep the lead and that’s what we did,” sophomore forward Craig Brackins said.

The Cyclones went into the half with a commanding 37-9 lead — the 28-point lead was by far the largest halftime lead of the season.

“Everybody who played in that first half gave us a great effort defensively,” head coach Greg McDermott said. “I’m really proud of the way our guys competed.”

The previous low for scoring in a half was set just last March by Texas A&M, when the Aggies scored just 10 points in a loss to Oklahoma. Before that game, Iowa State held the record for two weeks when it scored 11 points in the first half against Nebraska — a game that the Cyclones eventually came back and won.

“Everybody contributed on the defensive end of the floor. We took away their strengths, we were quick to the guys who we didn’t want to shoot it and we were slow to get to guys who we didn’t care if they shot it,” McDermott said.

The Buffaloes shot a dismal 4-of-23 from the field, which included going 0-of-9 from beyond the arc.

The bizarre half saw just one Colorado player even score. Dwight Thorne II actually had a decent half with nine points and four rebounds. Unfortunately for Colorado, the rest of the squad went 0-of-15 from the field.

“I’ve never had that happen, when a guy gets all their points,” McDermott said.

Cyclone Alley started to chant, “Double Digits” when Nate Tomlinson hit a 3-pointer early in the second half to put Colorado over 10 total points.

“[The first half] was a blur, a bad dream. It was terrible. Iowa State made shots. We didn’t. They rebounded. We didn’t. They defended. We didn’t. We just weren’t ready to play,” Thorne said.

The announced 10,821 people who came out to Hilton to watch two 1-7 teams face off knew they were going to see a low scoring affair, because in the first meeting between these two, Colorado knocked off Iowa State 55-49.

Brackins said that poor performance in Boulder, Co., put a little extra motivation into this game.

When asked how it feels to break a Big 12 record, Craig Brackins responded, “I’ll take pride in that.”