Iowa State jumped back in the win column on Wednesday night with a 54-48 victory over Kansas State.

Defense was the key to the Cyclone win, with leading scorer Dedric Willoughby still sidelined by a hamstring injury. ISU struggled offensively after falling behind early in the first half. The Wildcats opened up with a 5-0 lead as ISU struggled from the field shooting a meager 24 percent.

The Cyclones fell to an 11-point deficit with 5:51 left in the first half. ISU point guard Jacy Holloway attributed the slow start for the ‘Clones to not being prepared for some of KSU’s players to hit big shots.

“We let down on some players that we didn’t expect to hit the shots that they did,” Holloway said.

A layup by Cyclone forward Kenny Pratt at the 5:33 mark sparked the offense. ISU began chipping away at the lead with tough defense and penetration in the paint on the offensive end.

With 5:01 left Holloway sent an alley-oop to Cyclone center Kelvin Cato who threw down an authoritative dunk that sent the Hilton crowd screaming to its feet and brought ISU to within six.

The Cyclones jumped to within two on yet another dunk by Cato with 19 seconds left, and the momentum was with ISU as they entered the locker room.

The second half was all ISU defense. The Cyclones tied the score at 24-24 on their opening possession with a layup by Pratt. With the score tied at 40-40 ISU took over the game as Cato took over the paint.

The Cyclones continued to go down low to Cato in the second half. “That was our game plan for the second half,” Holloway said.

Holloway worked hard down low as well. He recorded 11 rebounds for the game. “I played a little bit of a different role tonight. Most of the games I’ve been shading the player,” Holloway said.

Cato gave the ‘Clones a 42-40 lead on a layup and then started the nail in the coffin with a monster, two-handed, reverse dunk that put ISU up by four.

The Cyclones were up by nine with 3:21 left, and then Kansas State started a small comeback. Two back-to-back three-pointers by Wildcat guard Ayome May brought KSU to within one.

Just when things were starting to look dangerous for ISU, forward Klay Edwards hit a 15 foot jump shot from the right side that gave the Cyclones a 51-48 lead. Two clutch free throws by Cato put ISU up by 5 and he added one more to make it 54-48 at the end.

“This is probably our best defensive effort of the year,” Edwards said. “Holding Kansas State to 24 points in each half, I think that helped us.”

The defensive charge was led by forward Shawn Bankhead who held Kansas State’s leading scorer Mark Young to only two points. Young also fouled out of the game. Bankhead was the team’s second leading scorer with 16 points.

Bankhead considered the game a big win situation for the Cyclones. “It was a must win situation for us with home [court] advantage. So we gotta do it,” Bankhead said.

Cato played tough defense recording eight blocks on the night. Cato’s defense lifted his offense as he led the Cyclones in scoring with 18 points, and jerked down 15 rebounds.

The Cyclones face a Texas Tech team that Head Coach Tim Floyd called the “second best team in the conference” on Saturday.