Iowa State had a chance to push Texas Tech a little further out on the NCAA Tournament bubble Saturday night, but in the end, it was just short.

With six seconds to play, Texas Tech’s Charlie Burgess was at the free-throw line for two shots with the Red Raiders leading 62-61. Burgess made the first shot, but missed the second, forcing Iowa State to attempt to go the length of the court for a basket with no timeouts.

Mike Taylor pushed the ball up the floor, but Tech defenders stopped him from driving to the lane. Taylor then attempted to get the ball to Corey McIntosh, but time expired before Iowa State could get a shot off.

ISU coach Greg McDermott said the loss was especially tough to take considering the type of team Texas Tech is.

“This is a team that’s going to be in the NCAA Tournament and we had them on the ropes,” McDermott said.

“We missed a great opportunity tonight.”

ISU forward Wesley Johnson said the last six seconds was just chaos with everyone trying to get open.

“We had a pretty good plan if [Burgess] made the [free throw]” Johnson said. “But he missed the shot, so we were just sprinting up the floor. It was chaotic. We were just trying to find the open man.”

McDermott said the lack of timeouts made things more complicated.

“It’s easy to set something up if he makes that shot,” McDermott said. “But he missed it so it was a little tougher. We were only down two, so we had the opportunity to take it to the basket and that’s probably what should have happened.”

Iowa State got off to a good start during a back-and-forth first half which ended with both teams tied at 29. Jiri Hubalek came out of the gates on fire, scoring the first 13 points for the Cyclones, and finished the game with 25 points and eight rebounds.

Iowa State has made getting Hubalek involved early a mission over the latter half of the season, and Saturday’s game was no different.

“When we went down there to him the first couple times he got a couple easy baskets,” Johnson said. “Then we just started feeding him the ball and they couldn’t stop him.”

Mike Taylor, however, failed to even get a shot off in the first half, and didn’t get his first field goal until he nailed a 3-pointer to pull the Cyclones within two points with 2:10 to play.

“I wouldn’t say Mike wasn’t aggressive,” McDermott said. “He had five turnovers in the first half, but he also had five assists. We had several uncontested layups in the first half that were a direct result of him.”

Taylor finished with only five points on 1-of-5 shooting from the floor.

Hubalek and Johnson were the only two Cyclones to score in double digits, and the lack of a third scorer was the key in the Cyclones’ defeat, McDermott said.

“We did some good things, but we only had two guys step up and score,” McDermott said.

“As has been the case all year, we need that third scorer. When we’ve had it, we’ve been pretty good, but we did not have it tonight.”

The loss locked Iowa State into the eight seed in the Big 12 Tournament.

The Cyclones face nine-seed Oklahoma on Thursday in Oklahoma City. Tip-off is set for 11:30 a.m.