Although the tempo was inconsistent, with Baylor clearly trying to run and Iowa State trying to slow things down, the Cyclones managed to take a  33 -29   lead into the locker room.

Included in the score was six three-pointers for Iowa State, beating the single season school record of 203 three-pointers in a season set by the 2007 team. Bryan Petersen tied the mark with a three-pointer with 4:06 left in the half and junior forward Jamie Vanderbeken set the new mark on a three-pointer with 7 seconds left in the half.

Sophomore forward Craig Brackins led the way for the Cyclones with 11 points, including four hard dunks and three free-throws.

The Bears decided to come out of the gate with a larger line-up than usual.  7-foot-1 senior center Mamadou Diene, who is only averaging 10 minutes a game, got the start over 6-foot-7 Quincy Acy and played the first 6:30 of the game.

The switch seemed to work well as Diene scored the opening basket of the game and finished the first half with 4 points, 2.5 points above his season average.  Diene also played tough defense on Brackins allowing just two shots, both contested, and both misses, in the opening 6:30 that he was in the game.

They used this solid defensive play to hold the Cyclones to five points for almost nine minutes, as they took a 15-5 lead.

The Cyclones used a myriad of players in the game with 11 different Cyclones seeing the court within the first ten minutes of the half.  The only eligible players to not see the court were Clinton Mann and Cameroon Lee.

Eventually, they found the players they wanted as Diante Garrett, Brackins, Lucca Staiger, Vanderbeken, and Wes Eikmeier got hot, putting together a 13-2 run, to take a 18-17 lead on a 3-pointer by Eikmeier, causing a Baylor timeout.

The timeout with 7:27 to play cooled the Cyclones off a bit as the teams stayed pretty even the rest of the half.