Jake Sullivan and John Neal did it again. The 3-point sharpshooters helped the ISU men’s basketball team overcome poor shooting and first-half turnovers to lead Iowa State to a 75-69 victory over Kansas State.

“It was a hard game, but our guys showed some resiliency,” ISU head coach Wayne Morgan said. “They played tougher and they played harder.”

It was a low-scoring game in the first half. With 11:53 remaining, Kansas State led 13-7. The Wildcats increased their lead as the half went on and held their biggest lead at 24-15 before a Neal three started a Cyclone comeback.

With just over five minutes left, Marcus Jefferson connected on an alley-oop from Stinson to wake up the crowd and cut Kansas State’s lead to four.

The game was Jefferson’s first after rejoining the team following a leave of absence for personal reasons.

The Wildcats took a 32-28 lead into halftime.

Turnovers plagued the Cyclones in the first half as they committed 13 and were just 10-for-20 from the floor.

Kansas State kept the Cyclones at arm’s length for much of the second half, but the Cyclones fought their way back behind the shooting of Sullivan and Neal.

Down 44-39, Sullivan hit a three to cut the Wildcat lead to three with 12:02 to play. Iowa State finally tied the game at 53 with 8:31 to go after Stinson drove the length of the floor and hit a pull-up jumper.

“Offensively at one point, Jake just basically took the game over,” Morgan said. “Those guys were right in his face and he didn’t care.”

Iowa State claimed its first lead since the first possession of the game after Sullivan connected on two free throws and put the Cyclones ahead 57-55.

The Cyclones boosted their lead to seven following a Neal 3-pointer with 3:25 remaining. Another big three by Neal with just over two minutes left again pushed the Cyclone lead to seven at 71-64.

“John’s been amazing. Nothing scares him, he has no fear,” Sullivan said.

“To put up those two shots when he hasn’t really shot a shot in a long time is pretty amazing. That’s what he has to do.”

Free throws by Stinson and Sullivan helped seal the game as Iowa State went on to win 75-69.

The Cyclones improved to 15-9 overall and 6-7 in Big 12 play. Kansas State falls to 12-12 overall and 4-9 in league play.

Neal ended with nine points going 3-of-4 from 3-point range. The Cyclones shot 83.3 percent from behind the arc in the second half.

“I’m fortunate enough to get the good passes from my teammates, so I’m just able to knock some shots down,” Neal said.

Jeremiah Massey led the Wildcats with 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting.

The Cyclones shot 64 percent from the floor in the second half and finished at 57.8 percent.

Iowa State held the Wildcats to 49.1 percent shooting and also won the rebounding war 32-23.

After committing 13 turnovers in the first half, the Cyclones only had four in the second half.

“We talked about [turnovers] at halftime,” Morgan said. “We’re a running team, a transition team and you’ve got to take the chance to throw those passes to get them out there to your guys that are running.”

Stinson ended with 10 assists for Iowa State.

“Curtis made some great calls out at point. He doesn’t get enough credit for that,” Sullivan said. “He was calling some stuff and making some great plays. That was a huge, huge impact on the game.”

After coming back from a second-half deficit, Iowa State is confident heading into its last three regular-season games.

“I don’t think we’re going to lose faith the rest of the year,” Sullivan said. “We’re going to win these last three games; that’s our goal, that’s our only focus.”