AMES — Iowa State capped off its senior night at Hilton Coliseum by keeping an offensively dangerous BYU team to zero points in the last four and a half minutes as the Cyclones took down BYU 68-63 to finish the season with an undefeated home record.
BYU gave Iowa State issues the first time around, and that looked to be the case after 20 minutes of play, but the Cyclones locked in when it mattered most and put on a show for a packed Hilton crowd.
When the dust settled, the Cyclones left the court with a perfect record at home for the first time in over 20 years. Tamin Lipsey was one of the key players to bring home the win as he smiled from ear to ear about the undefeated season.
“I was not alive the last time it happened,” Lipsey said.
Disastrous first-half stretch
Like it played out in the first meeting, BYU was shooting lights out, and Iowa State could not do anything to stop it.
Although the Cyclones were locking down on defense early on, BYU went on a run that would shift the tides entirely.
The Cougars started the game shooting 0-for-5 from deep, which was unexpected from a team that tends to beat teams from beyond the arc. However, that was about to change in the blink of an eye.
Iowa State’s offense has struggled for weeks and that trend seemed to carry over in the first half, as the Cyclones could not get anything to fall. On the other end, BYU went on a scoring run that saw it quickly take the lead.
“We were behind plays,” Iowa State head coach T.J. Otzelberger said. “They do such a great job; they can space you, so once you get behind the play, it’s hard with the shooting they have everywhere, to get caught up.”
The Cougars knocked down nine-straight shots to amass a near double-digit lead. In a matter of nearly 10 minutes, the Cyclones got zero stops and saw BYU blaze past them on 60% shooting from the field and nearly 50% from deep.
With five minutes left in the first half, it was BYU’s game to lose.
Although the Cyclones started to get more stops with time running out in the half, BYU shooting 6-for-8 from beyond the arc was too much for them to handle. When the halftime buzzer rang, the Cyclones entered the locker room down by 11 points.
“Games ain’t always gonna go your way. I guess in the first half, it didn’t go our way,” Curtis Jones said.
The Cyclones did start the second half by cutting into BYU’s lead thanks to a corner three from Lipsey, but that quickly did not matter as BYU answered back with a three of its own.
With shots still not falling for the Cyclones, BYU coasted through the first five minutes of the second half, maintaining and even growing its double-digit lead.
“We always bounce back. That’s what this team does,” Lipsey said.
Jones and Lipsey: Iowa State’s saviors
Jones and Lipsey kept the Cyclones alive early in the first half, and that turned out to be much-needed in the second.
It started with a deep three from Jones. He hit two shots from well past the arc in the first, but his third 3-pointer was the deepest yet.
Immediately following that three, the Cyclones forced a turnover on the other end that led to a fast break, which ended with a layup from Jones. In a matter of seconds, Jones cut BYU’s lead to six points after it had been as high as 14 early in the half.
“We really didn’t have a lot of big time or moments where it looked like we could get back in the game until that moment,” Jones said. “So, it was huge.”
BYU brought the lead back up to nine, but Jones answered right back.
Jones also helped secure a steal on the other end to set up a play for a Lipsey 3-pointer. Not long after, Jones hit a floater and knocked down the and-one to cut the lead to three.
“[Otzelberger] told me, ‘Be aggressive.’ Out of every media timeout, just keep being aggressive,” Jones said. “So, I was kinda looking to score.”
After his and-one, Jones handed the baton to Lipsey. It was time for another savior to take over the game.
As Lipsey bounded down the court, he let a 3-pointer fly in front of a defender’s face. As the ball flew through the air, Hilton was dead silent.
The ball hit the front of the rim. It then bounced up and stopped on the back of the rim. All of Hilton let out a gasp.
As the ball rolled down through the net, Hilton exploded. Iowa State had tied up the game.
“Today, I felt like it hit a new high for even some of the volume and how loud it was in there,” Otzelberger said. “We needed it, we needed all of it.”
With just under eight minutes to play, Iowa State was alive.
Shortly after the miracle shot from Lipsey, the Cyclones clung to a lead and eventually won the tug-of-war against the Cougars.
Lipsey finished the game with 19 points, while Jones was close behind with 18. The two combined for over half of the Cyclones’ points and contributed to an 11-0 run that was the driving force behind the win.
Despite their efforts, the game was still in reach for BYU with four and a half minutes left.
Sticking to their roots: Defense, defense, defense
Iowa State has hung its hat on defense, and that was the case again Wednesday night. After keeping UCF off the scoreboard in the final minutes of their last game, the Cyclones found that identity again against BYU.
Stops were the name of the game, and Iowa State was getting stops. With four and a half minutes to play, the score was 64-63.
“At the end of the day, if the score stayed like that, we would win the game,” Lipsey said.
Lipsey was right, as BYU would not score again after hitting 63 points. The Cyclones would not hit shots for the next three minutes, but defensive stops caused BYU to miss, too.
Up to that point, the Cyclones had already forced 14 turnovers. That number was unusually high for the Cougars.
In the last five possessions, the Cyclones forced three more turnovers.
“We turned them over 17 times, and I don’t think they turn it over that much usually,” Jones said.
“We haven’t been turned over 17 times in a long time,” BYU head coach Mark Pope said.
With one minute left, the Cougars tried to stay in the game by forcing fouls. However, Keshon Gilbert sank all four of his attempts, while BYU missed shots on the other end.
The Cyclones found their groove when they needed it most, and BYU could not get anything to fall. BYU finished the game missing its last six shots.
“That was a tough win. Probably one of the toughest, if not the toughest, win I think we had all year,” Jones said. “After the game, I was like, ‘I don’t know how we pulled that one off.’”
