After leading by as much as 14 points late in the first half, the Cyclone men’s basketball team stumbled through the final 20 minutes, eventually falling to the Kansas State Wildcats, 67-62.

Iowa State, described by head coach Larry Eustachy as “immature” among other things, shot 10 percent worse in the second half than they had in the first and allowed the Wildcats to improve their own shooting by well over 20 percent.

“They’re good guys,” Eustachy said. “I like them; I’m anxious to practice with them tomorrow; I have a lot of respect for them, but they’re just immature.”

Eustachy followed the same metaphor in describing how his team matched up with the more experienced KSU team.

“We were a bunch of children playing against some men out there,” Eustachy said. “We got taken to the cleaners.”

The Cyclones opened the competition well, gradually building their first half lead and peaking at 27-13 with a pair of Rodney Hampton free throws with 4:26 remaining.

By halftime, the lead was trimmed to 30-21.

Stevie Johnson led the ISU first half charge, finishing the 20 minutes with seven points and nine rebounds, six of which were off the offensive glass.

Marcus Fizer finished the first- half with four rebounds and seven points but was only one-for-seven from the field and missed a trio of free throws.

“We had a falseness because we made some shots in the first half and we thought it was just going to work out,” Eustachy said. “Things don’t just work out. You have to work hard.”

The Cyclones didn’t work hard in the second half, and their nine- point lead was soon a 10-point deficit.

“I think we came out too complacent,” Paris Corner said. “In the first half, we played very aggressive, and in the second half we didn’t come out as aggressive and we made some mistakes early on defense.”

After quickly narrowing the margin to 33-31, Josh Reid took over for the Wildcats, hitting four important three-pointers as KSU made a 12-point turnaround in under five minutes.

“We weren’t supposed to come off of [Reid],” Eustachy said. “We were supposed to be on him and we just didn’t execute the game plan.”

A distraught Fizer echoed his coach’s sentiment after the game.

“We didn’t execute the way we were supposed to and we didn’t play defense the way we were supposed to, so we lost the game,” he said. “It’s as simple as that.”

ISU had a chance to get back in the game a couple of times down the stretch but failed to take advantage of opportunities.

Corner narrowed the margin to two points on a pair of occasions with free throws, but the Wildcats answered each time and pulled out the victory, 67-62.

The Cyclones, currently one tenth of one percentage point out of the Big 12 lead for free throw shooting, made only 21 of 31 charity stripe opportunities.

Conversely, the Wildcats, currently dead last in conference free throw percentage, nailed down 81 percent of their chances.

“We have to play harder on the defensive end, and we have to make free throws,” Fizer said after game. “I know I missed about 12 tonight [actually seven] and that really has me disgusted.”

Fourteen points by Reid and another 16 by Manny Dies led the KSU offense over the Cyclones, despite a 38-33 ISU rebounding advantage.

Johnson was held scoreless in the second half but finished the game with 13 boards.

Fizer scored 21 points on the game and nabbed 10 rebounds in addition to picking up an assist, a block and a pair of steals.

Martin Rancik and Michael Nurse rounded out the double-digit Cyclone scoring with 15 and 10 points, respectively.

Johnson and Nurse tied for the team lead in assists with four apiece.

The Cyclone bench, which added up to Paris Corner, contributed seven of the Cyclones’ 62 points.

Kansas State, on the other hand, received 41 points and 13 rebounds from the non-starters.

Before Saturday, the Wildcats hadn’t won a Big 12 road game this season.

“We didn’t deserve to win,” Eustachy said. “Had we won, we wouldn’t have deserved it. They got every loose ball, they outrebounded us in the second half, we constantly missed assignments and they had guys open the whole night.”

“This is the most disappointed I’ve been since I can remember.”