That which almost lost the game for Iowa State is actually what won it — free throws.

With 9.1 seconds left and Iowa State ahead 80-79, Will Blalock missed his first free throw and made his second to put the Cyclones ahead 81-79 and forcing the hand of Virginia.

“I was a little nervous but I thought I’d hit them both,” Blalock said. “I kind of shorted the first one.”

Along with the free throws, fouls were also rampant as Iowa State committed 12 first-half fouls and Virginia had 11. The biggest difference was Virginia shot 14 for 16 from the line while Iowa State shot 7 for 12.

That shot differential continued into the second half as, for the game, the Cavaliers converted on 23 of 27 free throws and Iowa State managed only 12 of 27, a 44.4 percent average.

“That does concern us,” ISU head coach Wayne Morgan said. “It’s amazing to miss 15 free throws and still win. We got to improve that.”

Blalock said it was just a bad night for free throws.

“I guess we have to practice them more,” Blalock said.

“But our emphasis in practice is on defense, rebounding and free throws, and we just had a bad night.”

Virginia’s Devin Smith was nearly flawless going 14 of 15 from the stripe.

Fouls also continued into the second half, with Iowa State committing 10 and Virginia 12. A total of 45 fouls were committed during the game.

Robert Faulkner, who finished the game with 10 points, played only nine minutes in the first half after committing three fouls. He fouled out of the second with 7:03 left to play.

“If we could just get him to stop fouling, we’d have something,” Morgan said. “Rob did a great job for us tonight.”

Curtis Stinson and Anthony Davis ended with four fouls each.

Three technicals were called as tempers flared and emotions were high. Virginia’s Gary Forbes and Jason Clark, along with Stinson, were all called for technicals.

With 12:05 left in the second half, Forbes and Stinson were called for double technicals as they got into a scrape at halfcourt.

Clark received his as he got into an argument with ISU senior Jared Homan after Homan was called for an intentional foul on Adrian Joseph as he drove to the basket.

“Clark went after [Homan] and pushed him because [Joseph] really could have gotten hurt,” said Virginia head coach Pete Gillen. “It was just a hard foul, and I don’t think [Homan] was trying to hurt [Joseph], but it was a hard foul. I’ll take a technical. We lost the game. I’ll live with that because our guys backed each other up, and I’m proud of their effort.”