Iowa State was able to pull off a commanding 72-48 win Wednesday night over USC Upstate, but it was not without a little drama.

The Cyclones led 32-12 with 4:52 left in the first half after a Rahshon Clark 3-point play. The Spartans answered with a 9-0 run to end the half and a 6-2 run to start the second half to cut the lead to 34-27 and then 35-28, the closest USC Upstate would get in the second half.

Jiri Hubalek had a simple explanation for giving up the run.

“I would say just bad team effort,” Hubalek said. “We did a lot better job at the beginning of the game and throughout some parts of the second half, but we just did some mistakes we got correct and we were just fine.”

Coach Greg McDermott said the team did what it wanted to in the first half, but just got flat at the end of the half.

“For whatever reason we really got flat and made some uncharacteristic bad decisions with the basketball, tried to throw it some places where there was no read made whatsoever. That is inexcusable,” McDermott said. “We cleaned it up a little bit in the second half.”

Iowa State ended the run with two Bryan Petersen 3-pointers, and would never let the Spartans get back in the game.

Brackins continues hot streak:

Freshman Craig Brackins continued his hot non-conference start with 10 points and a game-high seven rebounds. Brackins said he was focused on slowing down his shots and letting the game come to him.

“I felt pretty comfortable. My shots were falling, I felt pretty good. It just felt good to have some shots go in,” he said.

Brackins is averaging 5.1 rebounds a game, and was just one shy of tying his career high of eight, which he reached in a win at Oregon State on Nov. 30.

Hubalek scores game-high:

Jiri Hubalek had a challenge in shooting over the Spartans’ 7-foot 2-inch center Nick Schneiders but was still able to come up with a game-high 13 points.

Hubalek also stopped Schneiders on defense, holding him to just five points and three rebounds.

Moving on:

Iowa State has one more game, a home date Saturday night against North Dakota, before starting Big 12 play at Baylor on Jan. 12.

Hubalek said he sees the team continuing to improve in non-conference play, but needs to step up before getting into the conference.

“I think we made a lot of progress on the offensive and defensive end of the floor, but obviously we’ve got to keep improving if we are going to achieve what we want to achieve,” Hubalek said.

The game against North Dakota becomes important in order to get one more to total 10 on the season heading into Baylor, as well as continue improving, Brackins said.

“I think it’s important just to get a win,” Brackins said. “More important, it gives us a chance to do what we have to do and get better before the Big 12, because I know that’s going to be really tough.

“We need to get together and lock down on this last game and win this and get ready for that.”