Larry Eustachy was pleased with Iowa State’s 71-61 win over Nebraska Saturday, but the fact that his team nearly set an NCAA record for blocked shots didn’t receive so much as a raised eyebrow in the postgame press conference.

“I’m not a big blocked-shots guy,” Eustachy said. “I think it’s a little over-rated. If they’re blocking it, that means somebody’s done something wrong and somebody has had to rotate over to block the shot.”

The Cyclones swatted away 17 shot attempts by Nebraska — including 15 in the second half — to set a school record and a conference mark. Nebraska held the previous Big 12 record for blocks in a game with 15 in 1996. It was the most rejections for the Cyclones since they had 13 against Drake on Jan. 2, 1991. Georgetown holds the NCAA record with 21 blocked shots against Southern University on Dec. 1, 1993.

Jackson Vroman, who had eight blocks by himself, said defensive pressure from the guards led to so many rejections.

“The guards were really pressuring, so they were taking it to the hole,” Vroman said. “We just happened to be in the right spot at the right time. Everyone on the team was blocking shots tonight. A lot of the times, our guards were still in front of them and they were being pressured, so they threw up off-balanced shots and they were a little easier to get to.”

Vroman said he was aware the team was blocking more shots than usual, but hadn’t thought about any records until he was told following the game about the accomplishments. Eustachy said he found out during a live postgame television interview and was confused.

“I thought they meant that they’d blocked 17 of our shots,” Eustachy said. “I didn’t realize that we had done that.”

Iowa State picked up the intensity defensively after halftime, holding Nebraska to 25 percent shooting in the second half. Vroman and 7-foot-1 center Chris Alexander set the tone as they combined for five rejections in the first five minutes of the second half.

The swats proved to spur the offense as the Cyclones went on a 15-4 run during the same time period to take a 46-36 lead.

Jared Homan finished with four blocks, Alexander had three and freshman Adam Haluska rejected two shots.

The Cyclones also had seven steals in the final 20 minutes, including four by Vroman. In all, Iowa State scored on nine possessions in the second half alone after blocking a shot or creating a steal.

Haluska’s steal in the first minute of the second half led to a three-pointer by Tim Barnes and after Alexander’s block on Nebraska’s next possession, Barnes connected again from downtown. The junior point guard finished with 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting.

Barnes’ steal with 8:09 remaining in the game might have been the biggest one of the game. As the Cornhuskers looked to start a fast break, Barnes stepped in front of Nate Johnson’s pass and quickly fired the ball to Vroman for a two-handed dunk. The play gave Iowa State a 13-point lead, its largest of the game.

Barnes, who started after coming off the bench against Missouri, is the key to the team in Eustachy’s mind.

“You play like you practice and he had his three best practices this week,” Eustachy said.

“That’s why he played so well. I don’t think it had anything to do with shooting. I think I’ve got him convinced that if he never makes a basket here again, he can help us win a lot of games.”

Jake Sullivan was the only Cyclone to find any consistent accuracy in the first half, providing 18 of Iowa State’s 30 halftime points. At one point, Sullivan was 7-for-9 from the field while the rest of his teammates were 1-for-12.

Marcus Jefferson was the first Cyclone besides Sullivan to make a shot from the field when he scored on an out-of-bounds play with 8:22 remaining in the half.

Iowa State shot a blistering 63 percent from the field in the final 20 minutes.

“I was excited about our aggressiveness [in the second half],” Eustachy said. “And equally as disappointed in our first half start.”