Colorado took a 37-0 halftime lead and coasted in the second half, winning 44-10 and handing Iowa State its sixth consecutive thumping in the Cyclones’ final home game of 2003.

Sophomore quarterback Joel Klatt completed 21-of-27 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns. Iowa State broke a 163-minute scoreless streak in the third quarter when Adam Benike nailed a 31-yard field goal to cut the margin to 37-3.

The Buffaloes — ranked 110th of 117 Division I-A teams in total defense entering the game — held the hapless ISU offense to 30 yards in the first half. Iowa State also lost two fumbles that led to 10 Colorado first-half points.

“They just dominated us,” ISU head coach Dan McCarney said after his team fell to 2-8 (0-6 Big 12). Colorado stayed in bowl contention by improving to 5-6 (3-4 Big 12) with only Nebraska left on its schedule.

“It seems when we go downhill, we stay down for a while,” freshman tailback Stevie Hicks said. Hicks picked up a first down on the Cyclones’ second play of the game, but Iowa State would not have another first down until its last drive of the first half.

“There’s just nothing there in the first half,” McCarney said. “It was a surprise that we didn’t play better than we did.”

After a Tony Yelk punt, Colorado drove 69 yards, with D.J. Hackett splitting a seam in the Cyclone seconday and catching a 42-yard touchdown pass from Klatt. Colorado’s next score came after a poor Yelk punt gave the Buffaloes the ball at the ISU 42. Eleven plays later, Daniel Jolly scored from two yards out to make the score 14-0.

On the first series of the second quarter, Colorado converted on third-and-23 when Klatt found a wide-open Hackett for 37 yards to the ISU 4. Colorado took a 21-0 lead on the next play, effectively ending Iowa State’s hopes in the game.

“We really had some uncharacteristic breakdowns in our secondary,” McCarney said.

The Cyclones failed to score in the first half for the fifth time this season. They did not cross midfield on a soggy Jack Trice Stadium field until the final moments of the first half, a 30-minute stretch in which they had zero rushing yards and didn’t threaten to break a string of two straight shutout losses. Iowa State’s longest play in the half was a 12-yard completion to senior Lane Danielsen.

“[It] easily could be our worst first half,” McCarney said.

Iowa State trailed 27-0 with six minutes left in the second quarter, but fumbles by David Banks-Bursey on a kickoff return and Hicks on a screen pass helped Colorado to its halftime margin.

Colorado lost two fumbles of its own in an uninteresting second half. The Buffaloes attempted just eight passes in the final 30 minutes, while ISU quarterback Waye Terry became the first Cyclone signal-caller to finish a contest he started since Austin Flynn went the entire way in Iowa State’s 24-16 loss at Northern Illinois Sept. 27.

Terry finished 16-of-40 passing for 121 yards with one interception. He ran for 41 yards on 13 carries.

“[Terry] was OK,” McCarney said. “He wasn’t really good and he wasn’t really bad.”

The junior found senior Jamaul Montgomery for a 28-yard touchdown catch-and-run early in the fourth quarter.

But Iowa State couldn’t manage even to make that score a positive. Two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties forced the Cyclones to kick off from the 10-yard line.

With its home schedule concluded, Iowa State heads to the road to play Kansas and Missouri to conclude the regular season. It will be the first time since 1999 that the Cyclones will not play in the postseason.

Saturday’s game marked the lowest offensive output — 223 yards — for a Colorado opponent this year. Only UCLA and Kansas State had failed to gain more than 400 yards against the Buffaloes.

“It’s pretty frustrating,” Hicks said.