The ISU men’s basketball team nearly pulled off an upset of then-No. 6 Kansas on Saturday. Some late adjustments by Kansas and poor free-throw shooting by the Cyclones allowed Kansas to escape with a 68-64 overtime victory.

The Jayhawks employed a stingy man-to-man defense that made things tough offensively for the Cyclones in the early going. Iowa State completed just two of its first 11 field goals to start the game.

“It was a great college basketball game,” ISU coach Greg McDermott said. “I talked after Nebraska about the first five minutes of the game and the first five minutes of the second half are the most important. Well, we were really dominated out of the gates. That’s something we can’t let happen.”

The Kansas defense allowed Iowa State to not only get to the free-throw line, but to make their foul shots even more important.

But the Cyclones shot just 42 percent (8-19) from the line and shot just one free-throw in the final 14 minutes of regulation.

Mike Taylor led the Cyclones in the game with 21 points, but was just 3-of-8 from the line.

“We were ready for everything Kansas was going to bring at us,” Taylor said. “I think we executed the game plan well, except for a few bad plays at the end.

“[My foul shooting] is something I have to commit myself to and stay in the gym and shoot free throws.”

McDermott said that the Cyclones’ struggles from the charity stripe was just one of several reasons the Cyclones were unable to pull off the upset.

“Obviously [our foul shooting] was poor,” McDermott said. “You’re fortunate to even be in a game shooting that percentage against Kansas.

“We need to work on them, as Mike said. It may have cost us the game, but it’s just one of many things you could point at.”

A bigger factor in the defeat was late in the second half when Kansas coach Bill Self made the decision to have Brandon Rush defend Taylor. Taylor had been able to get clean looks at the basket up until that point, but Rush was able to shut him down.

“It was a different look for me [when Kansas switched],” Taylor. “He’s long and was getting a lot of hands on the ball at the end.”

McDermott also credited the four fouls that Taylor and Jiri Hubalek each played with down the stretch as the difference in the game.

“[When Kansas switched] it was a different look but we just didn’t execute as well,” McDermott said. “We lost aggressiveness with four fouls on Hubalek and Taylor.

“It was a good move by Self. That made it tough to score in overtime.”