The Cyclones wrapped up the American Family Insurance BTI Cyclone Challenge with a 56-54 victory over Eastern Illinois on Sunday to win the tournament with a 3-0 record.

Iowa State got two defensive stops in the final minute with only a one-point lead, and Rahshon Clark made the first of two free throws with 4.2 seconds to play. Eastern Illinois failed to get a shot off as time expired, giving the Cyclones a 56-54 victory after giving away several leads in the second half.

“We made some mistakes, but when the game was on the line, we executed well,” said ISU coach Greg McDermott.

Clark had a team-high 12 rebounds to go with nine points, but he wasn’t satisfied with the entire game, especially the second half.

“They made some shots in the second half and we didn’t play good enough defense,” Clark said. “We weren’t jumping to the ball like we need to.”

The Cyclones led at intermission 29-22 behind Wesley Johnson’s first half team-high eight points and nine rebounds.

Johnson looked to be on the way to his second straight double-double with eight points and nine rebounds in the second half, but he failed to tally any rebounds or points in 13 minutes of play.

“There are going to be days like this,” McDermott said. “Some days we’ll execute well and some days we’ll have bad games.”

Iowa State went 3-0 in the grueling three-games-in-three-days tournament, while Louisiana Monroe went 2-1, UC-Riverside went 1-2 and Eastern Illinois was 0-3.

“We lacked a lot of energy,” McDermott said. “They said they weren’t tired, but I think they were running on fumes.”

The six member all-tournament team included Lance Brasher and Tony Hooper of Louisiana Monroe, Bobby Catchings of Eastern Illinois, Justin Bell of UC-Riverside and Iowa State’s Johnson and Mike Taylor.

Taylor was named the MVP of the team after averaging 17 points and three assists per game.

In the Cyclones’ first game of the round robin tournament, Iowa State dispatched UC-Riverside, 69-61. It wasn’t pretty for Iowa State, as the Cyclones were sloppy, committing 22 turnovers and 17 fouls.

The Cyclones led by as much as 10 in the first half, but fell behind by three at the half.

But behind 22 points from Taylor – who was playing in his first game after being suspended due to academics for the exhibition season – the Cyclones rallied to victory.

“I don’t see us as winning by a certain amount of points,” Clark said. “I don’t see it as winning pretty or anything, I just want to win.”

In game two, Iowa State was matched up with Louisiana-Monroe. After a sloppy effort the night before against Riverside, the Cyclones cleaned things up and dominated the Warhawks, 68-40.

Taylor again led the Cyclones in scoring, but it was Johnson who stole the show with 11 points and 12 rebounds for his first double-double in a Cyclone uniform.

Jessan Gray scored nine points and had three rebounds in only 12 minutes of play as he continues to battle back from a wrist injury. Gray played the tournament with a heavy wrap on his shooting hand.

“It was an outstanding effort all weekend,” McDermott said. “Yeah, we blew some assignments here and there, but we had a good effort all weekend.

“I’m glad we’re 3-0, that’s something we can build on.”

The Cyclones next see action this Sunday when they host Norfolk State. The game is scheduled to tip off at 1 p.m. and can be seen on the Mediacom Connections channel.