Marcus Fizer must have thought it was a good night for a ride. So he took his 14 teammates on his back and went on a journey he will never forget.

Fizer scored a career-high 35 points to lead the ISU men’s basketball team to a huge 89-77 win over No. 14 Texas Tuesday night at Hilton Coliseum.

“I’ve never seen him play so aggressive from all over than he did tonight. He was everywhere, offense, defense. He did it all,” ISU coach Larry Eustachy said.

The Cyclones, who moved to 23-4 overall and 11-2 in the conference with the win, are now in a tie with Oklahoma State for the Big 12 lead.

The Cowboys roll into town on Saturday for a showdown that will determine the champion of the conference.

“It’s going to be a tough game. We could play great, and they could just make shots over us,” Eustachy said. “Anybody who saw when they played Missouri saw that. But we’ll be ready.

“This was one of the gutsier performances I’ve ever had in 10 years of coaching. We were down big-time, and showed a lot of toughness in coming back.”

Casting a slight pall over the post-game back slapping was the news that center Paul Shirley had broken his foot. However, Eustachy said the news isn’t as bad as it may sound.

“There is a crack there, but we’re going to treat it more like a sprain than a break,” Eustachy said. “Hopefully, he can come back in two to three weeks, and it’ll just be playing with pain. But he may not play either. It’s just another obstacle we’ll have to overcome.”

The Longhorns came out of the gate shooting the ball very well, and had eight points before the Cyclones finally got on the board with a Michael Nurse three-pointer 3:22 into the game.

However, the first 12 minutes of the game were dominated by Texas. With 8:05 left in the half, the Longhorns had already hit four three-pointers and had a 26-12 lead.

“We just didn’t come out tough enough. That wasn’t the way we play ball. But eventually we got it together,” Stevie Johnson said.

Iowa State responded with the run that has become their trademark in this captivating campaign.

Once again it was Nurse who started the barrage, nailing a three. From then on, the Cyclones closed the half on a 26-11 run.

Fizer was the big factor, scoring nine of the 26 and ending up with 18 points at intermission.

As has been the case throughout the year, he wasn’t the only man doing damage.

Nurse scored five, Shirley had four on consecutive dunks, and Kantrail Horton and Jamaal Tinsley capped the half by each hitting a three-pointer, Tinsley’s coming from about 30 feet as the clock hit zero to give the Cyclones a one-point halftime lead.

It was a lead they refused to relinquish the remainder of the game.

Iowa State came out on fire, scoring the first seven points of the half. From then on, the lead got no smaller than four, and the game was never really in doubt.

The second half was marked by only one substitution, which was made to serve a specific purpose.

With six seconds left on the clock, Eustachy put in Martin Rancik, making his first appearance in a Cyclone uniform since early January, to replace Fizer.

The crowd, which earlier had chanted “One more year” at the versatile junior forward, rose in appreciation and unleashed a deafening roar that seemed to shake the floor.

With performances like this one, it’s no wonder the faithful would like to see Fizer back to lead the squad again.

Fizer almost equaled his 18-point first-half output, scoring 17 to end with his career-high.

He also grabbed nine rebounds, had five assists, had two blocks and two steals.

Stevie Johnson also had a big half, scoring all 12 of his points on 5-6 shooting from the field.

“Stevie was huge. I told him when Paul when out that we would need him more than ever. We needed to find a way to win, and Stevie did,” Eustachy said.

Nurse ended up with 20 points, while Tinsley managed 12 points to go along with nine assists and four steals.

“Michael Nurse was fantastic. He hit some big shots. And it was a tough night shooting for Jamaal, but he just continued to run the team,” Eustachy said.

Texas was led by Chris Mihm and Ivan Wagner, who both tallied 17. Darren Kelly hit for 15, while William Clay came off the bench to score 10.

But the defense the Cyclones employed on Mihm was very effective, limiting the mammoth 7-foot-1 center and future lottery pick to 6-13 from the field and six rebounds.

Texas’ other big gun, Gabe Muoneke, came in averaging 13.4 points, but he was held to just eight points.

“We just tried to get good position on them and identify their shooters, and I think we did a great job on defense,” Fizer said.

The Cyclones now will have three days to prepare for Oklahoma State.

“It’s a do or die game,” Johnson said. “These games just keep getting bigger and bigger.”