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Diante Garrett had one more free throw.

The problem – Iowa State was down by two with 2.5 seconds left.

After Kansas State’s Bill Walker missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw opportunity with eight seconds left and with Kansas State clinging to a three-point lead, Garrett took a pass off a Jiri Hubalek rebound and dribbled down the floor, needing a three-pointer to tie the game. Instead, Garrett was awarded only two shots at the free-throw line after being fouled by Blake Young, allowing the Wildcats to hold on for a 73-69 victory in front of 14,134 on senior day in Hilton Coliseum.

“If you’re going to [foul], generally it would have happened a little sooner – otherwise I would have taken a time-out right away, and I didn’t want them to have an opportunity to get a chance to do that,” coach Greg McDermott said. “[Garrett] can penetrate, and he was shooting well enough that I thought he could get us a shot.”

Instead, Garrett had to miss his second free throw and hope that an ISU player could tip in the rebound to score two points to tie the game. Unfortunately for the Cyclones, the nation’s leading rebounder, Kansas State’s Michael Beasley, was standing under the hoop to pick up his ninth rebound to put the game away after Iowa State fought back from a 14-point second-half deficit.

“That was tough,” ISU forward Craig Brackins said. “We had a plan to try to tip it to anybody and grab the rebound, but it was hard.”

Brackins had a game-high 24 points to go along with Wesley Johnson’s 12. The Cyclones held Beasley in check defensively, allowing him only 15 points, but allowed Jacob Pullen step up and beat them with 19 of his own.

“What killed us was Jacob Pullen going 8 for 11 . they had a player, a freshman, step up and have a huge game – and to me, that was the glaring difference in the game,” McDermott said.

What also hurt Iowa State, was Kansas State’s ability to pick up offensive rebounds.

The Cyclones designed their defense to stop Beasley and Walker, but left other Wildcat players in position to pick up offensive rebounds – they grabbed an impressive 15 over the course of the game.

The Cyclones were still able to put themselves in a position to win, after trailing by 14 with 10 minutes to play, when a shot from Dominique Sutton capped an 8-0 Wildcat run. Iowa State chipped its way back, but once again found itself on the short end.

“It’s really unfortunate that this team just can’t quite kick that door in. We’re so, so close,” McDermott said.

“There’s a lot of good things that have happened this week. I’m not sure a lot of teams would have played with the heart this team played with – given the situation – especially today, when we were down by 14 in the second half.”

When the two teams played at Kansas State in late January, the Wildcats dominated in an 82-57 blowout of Iowa State. Johnson said the team felt like it had something to prove this time and showed the improvement they fought for all season despite the losing streak.

“We had a game plan [last time], and we didn’t execute as well,” Johnson said. “We had time to play different teams, and we came in with this game plan again – and we were locked in and knew what we had to do . we really were just more focused in and really just bought into the game plan.”

The end result, however, was the same: Iowa State’s 11th loss in 13 games to end the regular season – this time on senior day. As senior starters Rahshon Clark and Hubalek walked off the Hilton floor for what was likely their final time in Cyclone uniforms, they waved to an appreciative crowd and Cyclone Alley student section.

Brackins said his 24-point effort was in honor of the four seniors, including Mark Currie and Mike Smith on the bench.

“I really wanted to go out there and win for all the seniors because I knew it was their last game,” Brackins said, “so I told myself I was going to go out and do everything I can to try to help that for Rahshon, Smitty, Jiri and Currie.”