All good things come to an end — unfortunately.

And it was the fourth-seeded Utah Utes that halted the dream season of the Iowa State Cyclones with a 73-67 decision on March 16.

The Utes (27-6) overcame a 26 point onslaught from Dedric Willoughby and a sub-par performance from their illness-stricken star Keith Van Horn, with clutch shots late to bounce Iowa State (24-9) and move into the Sweet 16.

“I want to give a lot of credit to Utah,” Iowa State Head Coach Tim Floyd said. “I think they played very well on the defensive end and they made us work on the offensive end for each every basket.”

Cyclones point guard Jacy Holloway, who recorded nine points on a trio of 3-pointers, concurred that the Utah defense played havoc with ISU.

“They did guard us real well,” he said. “We didn’t get into our offenses as quick as we needed to. We tried to switch up our defensive schemes and it seemed like it would work for a little bit, but there were guys on the perimeter that came up with big shots.”

Following the contest, junior Kelvin Cato stated that the loss will take nothing away from the Cyclones’ accomplishments throughout the year.

“I don’t think that just because we lost this game we’re going to go back with our heads down and think that we had a bad season, because we had a great season,” the 6-11 junior center said.

The first half set the stage for the entire afternoon as neither team could manage to take control of the matchup.

Utah grabbed the early advantage, as it jumped out to its biggest lead of the half at 22-17 on a Ben Melmeth jumper.

Floyd’s squad would bounce back, though, with a surge of their own.

A pair of free throws from Kenny Pratt with 6:26 to play before intermission capped an 11-2 ISU run that developed into a 28-24 Cyclone lead.

Junior guard Joe Modderman gave Iowa State its biggest cushion of the opening half, 37-32, with 1:12 to play when he nailed a trey from the top of the key.

Keeping perfectly with the trend, though, the Utes would come back to deadlock the score at 37-37 heading to the locker room.

In all, the first half featured nine lead changes, with neither club leading by more than five.

Van Horn, the Western Athletic Conference’s Player of the Year who sat out the Utes’ first round victory over Canisus with a stomach virus, played a surprising 17 minutes, while compiling nine points.

Utah’s main offensive force, though, was sophomore center Michael Doleac, who hit all five of his shots for 10 points.

Willoughby paced Iowa State in the initial 20 minutes with 10 points, while Pratt added eight to go along with seven rebounds.

At the start of the second half, the momentum appeared to be poised to swing toward the Cyclones, as Van Horn picked up two quick fouls, forcing him to the bench with four personals.

It was the Utes, though, that capitalized, going on an 8-2 run without their leader, to somewhat take hold of the game.

The see-saw battle continued throughout the remainder of the contest, sending the outcome to the wire.

With under a minute to play and the Utes on top 64-62, Cato stepped out and blocked Utah guard Mark Rydalch’s 15-footer for what would appear to give ISU the ball and a chance at the win.

The ball, though, careened directly to Utah’s Andre Miller, who drove a stake through the heart of the Cyclones by draining a 3-pointer with 43.6 seconds left.

For the game, the Utes shot an impressive 53 percent from the field, while Iowa State hit for 46 percent.

The most telling statistic for a Cyclone club that thrived at the free-throw line, was the team’s 0-5 showing in the second half that erased a major portion of the ISU offense.

Iowa State hit a total of only 6 of 14 from the charity stripe, while Utah buried 13 of 15 attempts.

Much like they did against California’s focus player Shareef Abdur-Rahim, the Cyclones shut down Van Horn, who fouled out with 6:05 to play, to 11 points, half of his season average, and two rebounds.

Doleac finished with a career-high 23 points to go along with 12 boards.

Pratt also pulled down 12 caroms, while sinking 10 points to accompany Willoughby’s 26.

Even though the setback may have ended the Cyclones’ season prematurely, Cato expressed that Iowa State will be ready for the 1996-97 campaign.

“We’re going to keep the same intensity that we had this year,” said Cato, who finished with 11 points and 6 rebounds. “We’re going to come out and play ball.”

Willoughby agreed: “I think the main thing is the guys need to get back in the gym and work out, because now there is going to be expectation that we are going to do this and we’re going to do that next year. Hopefully we can be in the same position next year, but be on the winning end.”