OMAHA, Neb. — The Cyclones caught fire at the right time to erase a first-half drought and push past Washington State 67-56 to earn their second Sweet Sixteen trip in three years.

Although nothing was falling early on, the Cyclones did not panic as the defense locked in. With the defense playing its heart out, it was only a matter of time before the offense started clicking.

Scoreless five minutes gives Iowa State an uphill battle

From Iowa State’s first possession, it was clear that the rims were not going to be nice to the Cyclones.

With two shots bouncing out, Washington State got the first punch. Again, the Cyclones tried to create buckets, but again the shots were not falling.

Four minutes into the game, the scoreboard still read zero for the Cyclones. Five minutes in: still zero.

The Cyclones tried their best to get creative and find what would work, but nothing fell.

After a game that saw them start 9-for-9, the Cyclones started their second round shooting 0-for-9.

“We played probably the worst basketball, in the first half, of the year,” Keshon Gilbert said.

The Cougars ran out to a near double-digit lead as Iowa State could not get points on the board. Hason Ward knocked down a free throw to get the Cyclones moving, but Washington State was not going to let them claw back in.

Iowa State’s first field goal did not come until six minutes into the game, as Curtis Jones knocked down a deep three. Even then, the drought continued.

“I kinda knew if I caught it, it was gonna go up. So, [Gilbert] threw me the pass, shot it, I felt confident in the shot and it just went down,” Jones said. “I don’t even know if that got us going, because we had four points for a while too.”

Jones was right, as the Cyclones still could not get things moving even after the made shot.

By the nine-minute mark, the Cyclones were shooting 1-for-13 from the floor. By half, 9-for-29.

Even though the Cyclones were not seeing shots fall, they were seeing success from deep. They finished the first half shooting 50% from three. However, that was only on four shots.

“I think I took one three in the first half. That’s not enough,” Milan Momcilovic said. “You gotta take more than that.”

Despite the cold shooting, Iowa State was not too far behind. The defense was making up for the offense.

With the defense keeping the game close, it was only a matter of time before the Cyclones started heating up.

“Good thing we didn’t go on a drought the whole game,” Jones said.

Defense erases all worries early on

The Cyclones stuck to their roots in the early minutes when the shots were not falling.

Stops became more important to make up for a struggling offense. Despite sitting at zero points for five minutes, Washington State could not pull away.

In the first 12 minutes, when Iowa State was starting to gain steam, the Cougars were still under 15 points. The Cyclones relied on their defense more than ever in that time.

“It’s definitely extra motivation, because we had to get stops,” Jones said. “We was stuck on zero even for a while.”

The key to keeping the game within reach came from forcing turnovers and securing rebounds. Washington State had more size than Iowa State, but that did not stop the Cyclones from leading the rebound battle for a large chunk of time.

By the end of the first half, the two teams were knotted with 19 rebounds a piece. Not only that, Iowa State had six offensive rebounds to Washington State’s four.

Along with the rebounds, the Cyclones were continuing to force rebounds. They gave up three early on, but still led the battle by forcing five. That number was below the mark they wanted to hit.

“In the second half, we regrouped and talked about how we only forced five turnovers and how that’s unacceptable to us and how we were going to, quite frankly, just triple it,” Tre King said.

Jones said that if they wanted to fight back into the game, they could not give up a double-digit lead.

The lead stayed close thanks to Iowa State’s ability to create opportunities from the few turnovers it did force. By half, the Cyclones were outscoring the Cougars 10-2 in points off turnovers.

From there, the defense got even more aggressive. Halfway through the second, the Cyclones doubled their turnover numbers. At the same time, they still had not given up another turnover after the third turnover they had five minutes into the first half.

With seven minutes left in the game, the Cyclones were only up by five points. With the offense clicking, it was the defense that took over the show at a crucial time.

The Cyclones forced back-to-back turnovers which led to the offensive explosion. With time running out, Washington State was now on a drought, as the Cyclones’ pressure was too much to keep hold of the ball.

By the end of the game, the Cyclones nearly hit King’s goal of tripling their first-half turnovers by finishing with 13. Not only that, they outscored Washington State 21-4 on points off turnovers.

“I would say we take a tremendous sense of pride in scoring off our defense,” Iowa State head coach T.J. Otzelberger said. “Probably the stat that we look at the most to determine how well we’re doing is points off turnovers, and we had 21-4.”

Offense starts clicking when it matters most

With the early offensive struggles, it was only a matter of time before something changed. Despite the poor shooting numbers, the Cyclones kept on shooting.

“We never lack confidence in our offensive ability. It was just, shots weren’t falling, and shots aren’t always gonna fall,” Jones said.

Gilbert started knocking down shots in the paint and getting to the foul line, which led into an early 8-0 run. Tamin Lipsey also got in on the action.

With 13 minutes left in the game, Lipsey got the Cyclones going from deep as he hit a step-back three to give the Cyclones a four-point lead.

On the other end of the court, Demarion Watson drew a charge to give the Cyclones the ball right back. Just 10 seconds later, Jones knocked down a three in a defender’s face.

Jones tried to stay hot on the next possession, but missed his heat-check attempt. One play later, he had another chance from deep. Jones passed it up and gave the opportunity to Momcilovic. He knocked it down.

“At halftime they said, ‘Get [Momcilovic] going, this game will be over.’ So I got going,” Momcilovic said.

In the first 12 minutes of the second half, the Cyclones were shooting over 50% from the field. That was a big switch up from the 30% they shot in the first half.

With seven minutes left in the game, Lipsey knocked down another step-back three. Immediately after Lipsey’s shot, King got in on the action by knocking down a fadeaway to give the Cyclones a 10-point lead.

“We make tough shots. There was a stretch there I hit a tough shot, [King] hit a tough shot, that fader, and Tamin Lipsey had a tough step back,” Momcilovic said. “There was a stretch there we hit some tough shots, but that’s why we’re here.”

With less than three minutes to play, Washington State made one last push to get back within double-figures. Momcilovic changed that by knocking down a dagger three.

“I feel like [Lipsey’s] step-back three, I think that was kinda the dagger. Mine was just the icing on top,” Momcilovic said.

With Iowa State up by double-digits again, the game was as much as over. After only taking four shots from deep in the first half, the Cyclones knocked down five in the second to seal the deal.

The Cyclone offense woke up and pushed them to a Sweet Sixteen appearance.