Saturday’s game sure was ugly. But from the Cyclones perspective, a good ugly.

And hey, “There’s nothing wrong with winning ugly,” coach Greg McDermott said after Iowa State’s (6-1) 63-50 win against Oregon State (1-5) on Saturday.

The game looked ugly thanks in part to McDermott’s defensive plan to slow Oregon State’s Princeton offense, which relies heavily on back-cut lay-ups for easy baskets.

“It looks ugly sometimes when you defend the Princeton offense the way we defended it, because we just weren’t going to give them any back-cut lay-ups,” McDermott said. “I mean that was basically our message today, ‘Go ahead and run your Princeton offense, but the back cuts are not going to be part of it today. You are going to have to find another way to score.’”

His team did just that, promptly shutting down the Princeton offense and Oregon State’s chances of winning, by not allowing one back-cut lay-up all game by McDermott’s count.

“I was proud of the way the guys stuck to the defensive plan,” McDermott said. “I didn’t want to see a back-cut lay-up, and they didn’t. We accomplished that. That leads to long possessions because they aren’t getting anything quick and sometimes that leads to the game looking a little bit ugly.”

Without the easy baskets, Iowa State forced Oregon State to shoot threes – 19 of them. The Beavers, who came into the game shooting just 34.8 percent from the arc, made just two all game (11 percent).

Strong defense has been the mark of the Cyclones through the first seven games. Through the first six, the Cyclones held each opponent below 40 percent shooting from the field. The Beavers finally broke that streak – albeit by shooting 40 percent. Still, the 50 points scored by the Beavers was the lowest point-total any Cyclones opponent has scored this season.

“Our guys understand that we can win on the defensive end of the floor,” McDermott said.

They sure can. When the Cyclones hold teams below 60 points, they are perfect. 21 times a McDermott Cyclone team has held an opponent below 60 points, and 21 times the Cyclones have won.

Still, despite the solid defensive performance, and maintaining a 10 point lead much of the game, Iowa State failed to put Oregon State away. Just as it seemed the Cyclones were about to pull away, they’d let the Beavers creep back into the game. It didn’t cost the Cyclones Saturday, but it was responsible for their only loss of the season against Hawaii.

What helped the Cyclones avoid a similar fate was making timely shots, and regaining their stroke from the arc after a 2-of-14 performance against UNI. Iowa State came into the game shooting 38 percent from the arc, and made 10-of-23 threes to shoot 43.5 percent for the game.

“Three-pointers were one big difference,” said Oregon State coach Craig Robinson. “That killed us at critical points in time. We’ve been shooting the ball pretty well. Give credit to Iowa State. They made their shots, and did so in critical times.”

The Cyclones would rather not have to rely on making big plays in the final minutes of the game when they could put teams away before that.

“We got to do a better job of finishing teams off if we’re up and just keep the lead going, said Craig Brackins, who recorded another double-double with a 13 point, 10 rebound effort. “It is definitely going to be important, because any team can creep up on you at anytime.”

And nobody wants to lose ugly.