The shock and sadness from the passing of Pete Taylor remained in Hilton Coliseum as Wednesday night’s game began. When the crowd of 12,723 finally awoke about four minutes into the game, the Cyclones were leading the Missouri Tigers, 10-2.

The opening run never stopped as the first half ended with a score of 33-19, and Iowa State never let Missouri back in it, going on to win 71-55. Iowa State big-men Jackson Vroman, Jared Homan and Clint Varley shut down the Tigers inside, and point guard Tim Barnes scored a game-high 24 points in the lopsided win.

“I thought we played great, our guys were really determined,” head coach Larry Eustachy said. “We had the eye of the tiger, we got real physical with their big guys. Tim Barnes — that’s the guy we recruited, I thought he was good.”

Homan played just 18 minutes due to foul trouble, but backed up Barnes with 15 points and pulled in seven rebounds. “Homan played impressively, that’s how we need him to play, that’s how he’s capable of playing,” Eustachy said. “I was proud of him.”

Vroman continued his dominant play down low, tallying a double-double in the first half and ending the game with 14 points and 15 rebounds. Missouri center Arthur Johnson, who came into the game third in the Big 12 in rebounding and second on his team in scoring, had just two points and three boards.

Iowa State, which moved to 15-11 and 5-10 in the Big 12, was coming off a road loss at Nebraska, where the Cornhuskers dominated the glass and pulled down 20 offensive rebounds.

“Against Nebraska we kind of got eaten alive and we took that personally,” Homan said. “I think Varley and I did a real nice job on limiting [Johnson’s] catches. A lot of that was due to back-side help from Jackson, and the other guys were really conscious of that, so that made our job a lot easier.”

Jake Sullivan, the Cyclones’ leading scorer for the season, was held to just nine points on 4-of-13 from the field, but along with Adam Haluska’s nine points, Sullivan was happy with the way his teammates had his back.

“That’s a team. My teammates were unbelievable tonight, they carried me,” Sullivan said. “We’ve been having really good practices lately, everyone is playing well, as you saw tonight. Everyone that stepped on the floor played well.”

Missouri, which drops to 18-8 and 9-6 in the Big 12, made just 6 of 22 from behind the arc and shot just 33 percent from the field for the game. Rickey Paulding and Travon Bryant each scored 18, but the next-highest point totals were Ricky Clemons and Jimmy McKinney with five.

Marcus Jefferson, who has been at the side of his ailing mother in Chicago, missed his flight and the game due to bad weather. Varley, one of two seniors playing in his last home game, returned from a two-game suspension to play 13 minutes and pull down four rebounds. The other senior, Omar Bynum, played the game’s final two minutes.

“Everybody knew they couldn’t let each other down because of our zero margin for error,” Eustachy said. “And nobody let anybody down, everybody played their part; I thought it was phenomenal. I was happy for Varley, I wish we could have used Omar a little bit more, it was a tough situation.”

The players and coaching staff addressed the news of Taylor’s passing earlier in the day and definitely felt the desire to win the game for him.

“We really tried to keep it focused on the game,” Homan said about the team’s emotion before the game. “Keep our emotions in check and concentrate on this game and get it done with, and then think about Pete and his family.”

Iowa State hits the road to face Kansas State this weekend, before heading to Dallas, Texas, for next week’s Big 12 Tournament.