A decade of frustration and heartache for Iowa State came to an end on Saturday night in Ames. 

A 21-point fourth-quarter brought the Cyclones back from 38-21 down to beat Kansas State, 42-38.

After three scoreless drives between the teams to open the game, the Cyclones scored on a one-yard pass from Brock Purdy to Hakeem Butler to make the score 7-0. 

That was how the first quarter ended. The second began with a touchdown run for Kansas State by Alex Barnes to tie up the game at 7-7. 

The following drive, a 65-yard completion to Butler set up a David Montgomery touchdown to give the Cyclones the lead back. Another long Kansas State drive tied the game up at 14. 

The final three minutes of the half were full of momentum swings. Iowa State had a touchdown wiped out by an offensive pass interference call, missed a 38-yard field goal and then fumbled away a punt return. Kansas State capitalized, scoring with 30 seconds left in the first half to head into the locker room with a 21-14 lead.

The Cyclones got a much-needed touchdown on their first drive of the half to tie it up at 21, scoring on an 11-yard fourth down run by Montgomery. A Kansas State field goal put the Wildcats up 24-21 six minutes into the second half. An interception and a 92-yard drive from Kansas State put the Cyclones in a 31-21 hole. 

The Wildcats had 198 rushing yards through three quarters.

Another interception from Purdy led to more Kansas State points, as a Skylar Thompson touchdown pass pushed the score to 38-21 with 12:27 left in the game. Two quick touchdowns from Iowa State — a short pass to Sam Seonbuchner and a fumble returned for a touchdown by Mike Rose — made the score 38-35 Wildcats with 8:34 to play.

A run by David Montgomery gave Iowa State a 42-38 lead with 4:34 to play, making the game the highest-scoring in the history of the series. 

Iowa State moves to 7-4 on the season and finishes 6-3 in Big 12 play.