After putting together the greatest combined season in Cyclone basketball history, both the men’s and women’s teams were eliminated in dramatic, controversial fashion Saturday night from the NCAA tournament.

In the early game, Marcus Fizer and the Cyclone men played the Michigan State Spartans even for the first 30 minutes, even with performing in front of a partisan crowd in Auburn Hills, Mich.

About midway through the second half, the Cyclones began one of their famous scoring runs and built a lead with time dwindling down. Up by seven points with only 5:49 remaining, it seemed as though Iowa State would be heading to its first Final Four in almost 50 years.

Instead, a number of clutch Spartan shots, combined with controversial calls, erased the Cyclone lead.

“Both teams in those situations are used to winning with five minutes to go,” ISU head coach Larry Eustachy said. “They played a better quality late in the game, and they’re going to the Final Four. You have to give them all the credit.”

The Spartans held only a slight lead with less than two minutes remaining, but the Cyclones couldn’t respond.

Finally, after a blocking foul on ISU guard Michael Nurse with 9.9 seconds left, Eustachy made known his feelings about the officiating, drawing a pair of technical fouls and an ejection.

After six free throws by Michigan State’s, two by Andre Hutson and four by A.J. Granger, Iowa State was sent home on the losing end of the 75-64 score.

Just as the ISU men were wrapping up their evening and their season, the women were preparing to tip off in Kansas City, Mo.

Like the men, the Cyclone women played the first half very close, trailing by just four at the break. The deficit would grow to 12 in the early second half, but the patient ISU team evened the score with more than four minutes to go.

The game eventually came down to a pair of desperation shots in the final 20 seconds.

A heave by Helen Darling of Penn State went in. ISU guard Megan Taylor’s shot with the time running out did not.

“If you tell me that Megan Taylor is going to have that shot with time running out to win the game,” ISU head coach Bill Fennelly said, “I’ll take it every time. They made one more play than us tonight.”

Both ISU teams won their respective Big 12 regular-season championships and conference tournaments before advancing to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament. The men finished their season in the Elite Eight.