After struggling to score all through the Big 12 season, the men of the bench came through when they were needed.

With one starter out with an injury and two battling foul trouble all night, the Iowa State bench scored 27 points Tuesday night and helped carry the Cyclones to victory. The reserves had only been averaging 8.2 points per game in conference play.

As gusting winds and swirling snow blitzed Hilton Coliseum, Iowa State’s shooting was just as cold, making just 5 of 23 shots (21 percent) on the way to 15 first-half points – the sixth lowest total in school history. But the Cyclones were able to force that cold touch onto Colorado in the second half and rallied to grab a 57-41 win in front of 11,954 brave fans.

“This is about as proud as I’ve ever been of a team in victory,” coach Greg McDermott said. “The way we stuck with it, we obviously stood around a good portion of the first half wondering how we were going to play without [Wesley Johnson].”

Playing without leading scorer Johnson, who went out at about the midway point of the first half with an injury similar to one he suffered earlier in the season and did not return, the Cyclones (13-8, 3-3) used their defense to emerge victorious, holding the Buffaloes (9-11, 1-5) to a season-low 41 points. Cameron Lee came in and locked down Colorado’s Marcus Hall, holding him scoreless in the second half.

Lee’s defense on Hall, along with Sean Haluska’s on Richard Roby after Rahshon Clark went out with foul trouble, were two big reasons Colorado only scored 19 second-half points.

“I was trying to stop him from driving, because when I was on the bench watching him in the first half he was getting to the basket a lot,” Lee said. “So I wanted to stop his drive first, but I wanted to make sure to get my hand up because I knew he shot a lot of threes before.”

With points proving hard to come by, McDermott went to his bench early and often, bringing in four reserves in the first 12 minutes and five total in the first half. Lee, Haluska, Diante Garrett, Alex Thompson and Charles Boozer all saw time off the bench for the Cyclones. But no matter who was on the floor, no combination of players seemed to be working, and the Cyclones went into the second half down 22-15.

The team made some offensive adjustments during the break, trying to set ball screens at the top of the key and get the guards some open jumpers, while at the same time working the bigs down low.

“I hit a couple open shots, and we had some more open shots on the perimeter,” Haluska said. “I think using that ball screen too, we were trying to get the ball into Craig and Jiri [Hubalek] a little bit, and I think we were very successful with that.”

After Johnson, Clark and Brackins combined for only two first-half points, Brackins came to life early in the second, scoring six quick points, punctuating a Cyclone run with an emphatic dunk to give Iowa State its first lead of the game, 27-25, with 14:45 remaining. The freshman finished with 10 points, tying with Hubalek for the team lead.

The offensive adjustments worked. Before seven minutes had gone by in the second half, Iowa State had already matched its first-half total of 15 points.

Roby led all scorers with 13, but fouled out with 4:04 remaining.

The bench was the deciding factor down the stretch as Iowa State pulled away from the Buffaloes. Haluska, after making his first three of the season against Kansas State, kept the magic flowing, connecting twice from downtown en route to a career-high 9 points. McDermott called an out-of-bounds play for him, and Haluska responded by draining the open jumper.

His driving lay-up with 2:19 left gave Iowa State a nine-point lead and took the life out of Colorado.

“[McDermott’s] been encouraging me the whole time that I’ve been through this struggle to get in the gym and keep shooting,” said Haluska, who celebrated his 21st birthday Tuesday.