ISU point guard Tim Barnes had his family in the crowd at Hilton Coliseum for the first time Saturday. And he didn’t disappoint them — or the rest of the crowd.

Iowa State began the second half down by 16 points, but rallied behind Barnes, who scored 17 points in the half including five three-pointers, to defeat Kansas State, 64-61.

“My whole family was here — mom, grandma, brother, cousins — and it was gratifying to get a win in front of them,” Barnes said. “I didn’t want them walking out of here thinking we weren’t any good and we were losers or anything like that, but they think we’re winners now. They’ve never come to Ames — they like it, but they said it was a little cold.”

After going 0-for-10 from beyond the arc in the first half en route to 27 percent shooting, the Cyclones were 7-for-12 from downtown and shot nearly 50 percent in the second half to complete the comeback.

“I thought this was a turning point on our season,” head coach Larry Eustachy said. “We called the timeouts specifically to say, ‘We’ve been here, we’ve got to get it done today, we have to pass this test, this is the season.’ And I thought they showed some great composure and some real urgency.”

Iowa State (13-10, 3-9 Big 12) used a 20-4 run that began two minutes into the second half with a basket from Jake Sullivan. Barnes knocked down all five of his threes during the run as he ended the game with 23 points.

“He just had a lot of energy today. Those first couple shots that he hit really got him going,” Jackson Vroman said about Barnes. “When he gets his confidence up, he’s a hell of a player and it was really good to see that.”

“Tim is playing with a lot more confidence, the very thing [Adam] Haluska doesn’t have right now, you can just tell,” Eustachy said.

Kansas State (12-13, 3-9) regained the lead with 2:36 remaining on a basket from Pervis Pasco. Seconds later, Haluska broke his 0-for-8 shooting performance with a drive to the hoop to give Iowa State its final lead. Haluska was eventually fouled with 18 seconds left and drained both attempts to capture the victory.

“I just knew I had to make both of those free throws to really seal it up,” Haluska said. “And I was fortunate to make them both.”

The Cyclones, who lost Chris Alexander when he left school two weeks ago, were even more short-handed as Marcus Jefferson was not able to attend Saturday’s game because his mother is very ill.

On top of that, Haluska, Vroman and Jared Homan each played the final seven minutes with four fouls apiece.

“It’s really almost miraculous to pull this game out,” Eustachy said. “I don’t know if I’ve had a nicer win since I’ve been here, under the circumstances.”

Vroman said he stayed physical, even with the threat of picking up his fifth foul.

“We always try to play like you don’t have four fouls or else you might as well not be in there anyway, so we just tried to stay real aggressive,” Vroman said.

Sullivan was the only other Cyclone in double figures with a game-high 25 points. Vroman scored nine points and pulled in a career high 16 rebounds.

“Jake’s really hurting; he has a really bad ankle,” Eustachy said. “A lot of guys wouldn’t have played tonight, but he had to.”

After shooting 54 percent in the first half, Kansas State shot just 40 percent in the second half, making just four three-pointers on 12 attempts.

Pasco led the Wildcats with 15 points. The team’s leading scorer going into Saturday, Gilson DeJesus, was held to just six points.

“This is the most toughness we’ve shown,” Eustachy said. “We haven’t had the practice time that we normally have and I thought that affected us early-going — we were kind of a half step slow.”

The Cyclones, who have struggled at times this season to play a complete game, were happy to be able to pull out a close one and will look to this game as a confidence-booster heading into the final four games of the season and the Big 12 tournament.

“We’ve been struggling lately, we haven’t played well in the second half,” Haluska said. “We’ve had those stretches where for three of four minutes we really break down and don’t execute, today we really grew up.”

They Cyclones host Colorado on Tuesday.

“We came out motivated, we came out and played hard, we played tough,” Sullivan said. “This team has been through a lot together, Marcus is gone and a lot of other issues, and we came together like no other.”