The Iowa State men’s basketball team picked up three impressive victories in its first four games of the 1998-99 season over the past week.

After defeating the Chicago State Cougars at home, the Cyclones traveled to the Great Alaska Shootout where they sandwiched a close loss to the No. 7 Cincinnati Bearcats between big wins over St. Mary’s and Fresno State.

Their 3-1 record was enough to garner the Cyclones several votes in the latest coaches’ poll over a series of games in which head coach Larry Eustachy predicted the team would “bottom out.”

The Cyclones warmed up for their first tournament of the year against Chicago State on Monday, Nov. 23 at Hilton Coliseum.

In what would become a theme for the week, Iowa State’s competition was without several of its top players, most notably junior point guard Jermaine “Squirt” Hicks and senior forward Pierre Shuttlesworth.

The tandem averaged 25.7 points and 10.5 rebounds per game last season, but Chicago State played some of their most inspired basketball of the young season without their team leaders.

Eight of the nine Cougars that saw playing time scored against the Cyclones, and Chicago State actually held a 29-28 rebounding advantage at the end of the game. Tough Cyclone defense and sizzling shooting in the first half, however, allowed Iowa State to overpower their opponents.

The Cyclones held the Cougars to .346 shooting on the game and forced 18 turnovers to keep the Chicago State offense off-balance.

For their own offense, the Cyclones hit their first eight shots, including a pair of treys by Michael Nurse and another by Martin Rancik to build an early double-digit lead.

The Iowa State lead climbed to 26 by halftime as the team shot over 70 percent for most of the half and finished the game at .608.

In the second half, the Cyclones quickly went up by over 30 and finished the game with a 79-48 win.

“Early in the game, they were as good as any team I’ve had in the way they executed defense,” Eustachy said. “I knew they couldn’t sustain it, though.”

“We just came out and concentrated on playing tough ‘D’ and rebounding,” Rancik said. “We were executing our offense and taking good shots and they went in.”

For Rancik, especially, the shots went in. The 6-9 sophomore hit on 8-of-9 shots, sank both of his free throw attempts and ended the game with 19 points to lead all scorers.

“I was just taking the good shots,” Rancik explained, “which comes with more experience and maturity.”

Marcus Fizer and Nurse rounded out the double-digit Cyclone scorers with 18 and 11 points, respectively.

Nurse also had six assists with just one turnover in an impressive outing at point guard. Lee Love came off the bench to contribute six assists of his own without a turnover.

Junior Tony Rampton led all Cyclone rebounders with five.

In the first round of the Shootout, the Cyclones faced the Gaels of St. Mary’s, against whom they continued their high-percentage shooting.

Marcus Fizer led a Cyclone offense that shot .609 on the night with a career-high 30 points.

Iowa State finished the first half up 27-26 and built a comfortable lead late in the second half, only to watch it deteriorate due to poor free throw shooting.

Largely relying upon the three-point shooting of Eric Schraeder, who finished the game with 33 points, the Gaels tied the Cyclones at the end of regulation and forced overtime.

After building a seven-point lead with under two minutes to play, the Cyclones again failed to convert on crucial free throw attempts and watched as St. Mary’s tied the game with under 10 seconds to play.

On the ensuing in-bounds, however, Michael Nurse hit a clutch jumper at the buzzer to win it for Iowa State, 74-72.

Nurse finished the game with 16 points.

St. Mary’s, playing without 7-3 center Brad Millard, was beaten on the glass, 30-26. Fizer led all rebounders with nine, and Klay Edwards came off the bench to collect six boards and six points in 24 minutes of play.

Forward Lamar Gregg blocked a pair of shots and dished three assists in 40 minutes of play.

In their second-round game against eventual tournament champion Cincinnati, the Cyclones came on strong in the early-going, scoring the game’s first eight points.

In a first half marked by streaky play from both teams, Cincinnati took the lead on the strength of a 12-0 run, but Iowa State climbed back into contention with nine unanswered points of its own, including seven from Edwards.

Iowa State, which shot over 60 percent in its first two contests, dropped to under 40 percent against the Bearcats and could only keep up with its stronger opponents for about 30 minutes.

When Cincinnati managed seven unanswered points with under nine minutes remaining, the Cyclones couldn’t hang on, eventually falling 60-52.

Rancik led all scorers with 14 points in his 28 minutes of play.

Fizer was one behind with 13 points and led all rebounders with 11.

The Bearcats, playing without senior guard Michael Horton, were led by Melvin Levett’s 12 points and Pete Mickeal’s 10 rebounds.

In their final game of the tournament, the Cyclones went head-to-head with Jerry Tarkanian’s Fresno State Bulldogs.

After falling behind by as much as eight points in the early stages of play, the Cyclones rebounded to take a 40-36 lead heading into the intermission.

Fizer highlighted the comeback with a pair of free throws, a dunk, a lay-up and an alley-oop in the span of just over a minute.

In the second half, the teams traded leads, but Iowa State went up for good on a pair of lay-ups by Nurse and Rancik.

The Cyclones were again forced to seal the victory on the charity stripe, and this time they responded by hitting six clutch free throws down the stretch, including four by Stevie Johnson, to win 79-70.

Besides their poor showing on the line against St. Mary’s, the Cyclones have hit 83.9 percent of their free throws, a full eight percentage points better than any Cyclone team in the school’s history.

Senior guard Chris Herren led the Bulldogs, who were playing without 6-5 senior Willie Farley, with 23 points, but failed to convert on several crucial free throws down the stretch.

Fizer led six Cyclones in double-digits with 16 points. Edwards and Rancik each managed 14 points, Nurse picked up 12 and Johnson and Paris Corner each had 10 to round out the balanced Iowa State scoring.

The Cyclones outrebounded the Bulldogs 38-23 and were led by Johnson and Edwards, with eight boards apiece.

The Cyclones return to the hardwood Wednesday as they travel to Northern Iowa to face the Panthers and former assistant coach Sam Weaver, now at the helm in Cedar Falls.