The Cyclones will try to avenge last year’s 73-63 home defeat at the hands of Nebraska in Hilton Coliseum on Tuesday night, just days after pulling off an exciting last-minute comeback.

Iowa State defeated Missouri, 66-65, Saturday in Columbia, Mo., in coach Greg McDermott’s first Big 12 game.

Wesley Johnson’s tip-in with 1.6 seconds to play capped a 16-point second-half comeback – the second largest in ISU history.

“To our credit, everybody I asked to go in and contribute was able to contribute,” McDermott said. “We executed some things late, on the defensive end in particular, and we had some guys step up and hit some big shots.”

Saturday’s road victory marked just the second time the Cyclones have won a Big 12 road opener. As Iowa State turns its attention to Nebraska, the Cyclones hope to open the conference season 2-0 for the only the fourth time in the past 10 years.

“Nebraska is a very talented team,” McDermott said.

“Coach Doc Sadler has done a great job.

“They are complete defensively. They take care of the basketball for the most part and do a great job getting it inside.

“We are certainly going to have our issues in trying to defend them.”

The Huskers have won four straight heading into their conference opener against Iowa State (10-5, 1-0 Big 12) and are hoping for a solid season under Sadler, who, like McDermott, is in his first season as head coach.

With a mix of experience from senior big man Aleks Maric and guard Marcus Perry, coupled with standout freshman Ryan Anderson, the Huskers have started hot and will try to extend their Hilton Coliseum winning streak to three games.

“They have a whole group of guards that on any given night can go off,” McDermott said. “Ryan Anderson is having a great freshman season. Marcus Perry has had big games for them and Charles Richardson has played well. They have enough weapons to go with the big guy [Maric], and they can hurt you with a lot of spots.”

Anderson is scoring more than 13 points per game and is shooting nearly 50 percent from three-point range.

Perry has also been lighting it up from behind the arc with a team-high 24 triples on the season.

If Maric sounds familiar, he should. The 6-foot-11 Australian center manhandled the Cyclones in Hilton last year, scoring 37 points on 13-of-15 shooting and pulling down 16 rebounds.

“Aleks Maric is as good of a front-line player we are going to see all year,” McDermott said. “He scores over both shoulders. He gets position deep. He runs the floor well and is a good free-throw shooter.

“That will be our challenge . stopping him. But they have enough three-point shooters to spread the floor around him and make it difficult for us to leave the other players open and commit to help on [Maric].”

Still, McDermott is committed to finding a way to avoid repeating last year’s disaster.

“I don’t think you can defend him in just one way. We will have to come up with a couple of different packages. The best way is to keep it out of his hands. Whether we have anyone with the combination of size and quickness to do that, we will have to evaluate in practice.”