Marcus Fizer knew the Cyclones were going to win. He was so confident, in fact, that he told the managers of the team to make a sign that read “Larry Eustachy is #1.”

This was just after he dunked the ball to make the score 10-1 with 16:35 left in the first half of the game.Thanks to Fizer, Kantrail Horton and the rest of the Cyclones, the prediction came true, and at the end of the 79-66 win over University of Iowa, Fizer was indeed standing on top of the scorers table with the sign in hand.

“I wanted everybody to know who was the best coach in Iowa and one of the best in the country, so I told them to make the sign. I’ve never wanted to win this bad,” Fizer, who was held to two points in last year’s game in Iowa City, said.

ISU was led by Horton, who once again played through a painful ankle injury to tally 20 points to go along with 11 rebounds and four assists.

“[Horton’s] got a real foot problem,” coach Larry Eustachy said. “He’s not practicing much, he’s doing his conditioning in the pool, so he had to be dead tired playing 38 minutes. That was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen in a big game like this under those circumstances.”

It was Fizer, who’s new attitude and maturity were clear throughout the contest, who made a difference with 16 points and seven rebounds, despite being on the floor for only 27 minutes due to foul trouble.

“Those numbers mean nothing,” Eustachy said. “[Fizer has] shown more leadership than ever. He made it clear in the pregame meeting that we were not going to lose this game, and we didn’t.”

Another key contributor was Paul Shirley, who tallied 12 points and also collected six rebounds for ISU.

“Paul was very big tonight. He was there for us when we needed him,” Eustachy said.

The Hawkeyes, on the other hand, were led by Dean Oliver, who scored nine of his 21 points in the last 10 minutes. The Hawks’ leading scorer coming into the game, Jacob Jaacks, was held to three points on 1-3 shooting from the field. He missed all three of his free throw attempts.

“We thought coming into the game that Jaacks was the key to their offense, so we spent three days in practice just guarding him,” Eustachy said. “We had a plan for him, and it really worked.”

ISU got off to a 12-1 start on the strength of Fizer and Horton, who had six points apiece in the auspicious beginning for the ‘Clones.

Iowa then made a run over the next six minutes, cutting the lead from 14-3 to 17-13 with just over nine minutes in the half.

However, ISU was able to regroup, and the Cyclones finished the half on a 15-6 run that included an off-balance three-pointer by Horton at the buzzer to take a 37-24 lead at the half.

As expected, the Hawkeyes came out with a run in the second half, scoring 11 of the first 12 points of the half to cut the lead to 38-35 with 15:33 left in the game.

Again, the Cyclones responded with a run of their own, outscoring Iowa 13-5 to take a 51-40 lead with nine minutes left.

Down the stretch, Iowa would get no closer than nine points, and ISU had their first win over Iowa since 1996.