DALLAS — Kansas outscored Iowa State 36-14 in the paint and hung on during a back-and-forth second half to defeat the Cyclones 63-60 in the first round of the Big 12 tournament.

Iowa State (12-16, 7-9 Big 12) had one last chance with 2.5 seconds remaining, but the inbound pass from the opposite baseline was knocked around. Lindsey Wilson, who led all scorers with 25 points, was only able to get a finger on it and the horn sounded, setting off a Kansas celebration at mid-court.

ISU head coach Bill Fennelly, who completed his first losing season in 15 years as a head coach, said his team practices the “three-second play” every single day.

“The key is you’ve got to make the catch on the long pass,” he said. “Kansas kept us from catching it and the ball kind of got jammed up.”

The thriller included seven second-half ties and seven lead changes. For the most part, it was the Cyclones who were trying to catch up.

The Cyclones led 5-4 after a three-pointer from Mary Cofield two minutes into the game, but wouldn’t pull even again until Wilson’s lay-up five minutes into the second half tied the game at 34.

Anne O’Neil swished a three to put Iowa State on top, but Kansas’ Blair Waltz drained a trey on the Jayhawks’ next possession to steal the momentum away. Then it was Brandi McGinest, who had just entered the game, slicing through the lane and banking in a runner as the shot clock expired.

Iowa State then went on a 7-0 run to take the lead, but Kansas’ Leila Menguc scooped in an acrobatic shot to tie it once more at 48 with 8:29 left.

With the score knotted at 50, Crystal Kemp took over for the Jayhawks down low. She completed a three-point play and secured an offensive rebound for another inside bucket on Kansas’ next possession.

“We just got mauled in there and couldn’t stop them no matter what we did,” said Fennelly about his team’s defense in the lane. “That was the difference in the game — their inside play dominated ours.”

The Cyclones passed the ball around crisply before Wilson was able to juke her defender to sneak into the lane, knock down a jumper and regain the lead for Iowa State as the clock dipped under four minutes.

It was the last field goal Iowa State would make as the Cyclones missed their last six shots. Kemp’s lay-up with 56 seconds left gave Kansas the lead for good. The 6-foot-2 freshman center finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds to lead Kansas in both categories.

“The postseason determines how good you really are and how bad you want it,” Kemp said. “I think we proved today that we wanted it bad.”

Kansas kept the nets hot early, connecting on six of its first nine shots to take a 14-7 lead.

“At that point, they knew they could beat us and we had a game on our hands,” said Wilson, who led her team in a 69-44 shellacking of the Jayhawks just six days earlier.

Iowa State also won the first meeting against Kansas on Jan. 11 in Ames — a two-point squeaker. In that game, Kansas outrebounded Iowa State by 19. The Jayhawks won the battle of the boards 33-32 Tuesday.

“We knew it would be the team we played in January or the team that we played last week that would show up,” Wilson said. “When you beat a team by 25, especially if it’s only six days later, you have to make them conjure up memories from the week before and not let them remember how they played us down to the wire at Hilton.”

Kansas (11-17, 3-13) took their largest lead of the game at 21-11 on a jumper by Burras from the right baseline. The Cyclones started taking it to the hoop after that. Wilson and O’Neil were fouled on drives to the rack, leading to four made free throws. Wilson’s stop-and-pop from the free throw lane made it 28-25 Kansas at the half.

The Jayhawks, who had only won one of their nine previous games, limited Iowa State’s three-point shots and were able to contain the Cyclones when they tried to fast break. Iowa State was just 1-of-7 from beyond the arc before halftime.

“We covered up their diagonal shooters better,” KU head coach Marian Washington said. “They really hurt us at our place and we lost their three-point shooters.”

Cofield was the only one to have a successful game in three-point territory, going 3-of-5 en route to 13 points and seven rebounds. Lisa Kriener was the other Cyclones in double figures with 10 points in 18 minutes.

For the Cyclones, who advanced to last season’s semifinals and played in three championship games prior to that, it was their earliest exit from the Big 12 tournament since a 56-36 setback against Colorado in the second round of the 1997 tournament.

Fennelly, whose team shot 32 percent, compared to 51 percent by Kansas, saw the Cyclones miss four lay-ups in the second half. “It’s tough to win when you can’t make shots,” he said. “That’s kind of the way it went all year.”