Monte Morris briefly paused Monday afternoon before recollecting all of the memories.

The four years of moments — both on and off the court — came flooding back to the star point guard’s mind inside at Hilton Coliseum ahead of Iowa State’s (19-9, 11-5 Big 12) game against Oklahoma State (20-9, 9-7 Big 12) at 8 p.m. Tuesday — the last home game for seven Iowa State seniors. 

He rattled off the obvious ones: his game-winning shot against Texas in the 2014-15 Big 12 Tournament, the team’s two runs to the Sweet Sixteen and the numerous comebacks at Hilton Coliseum. 

But he struggled to pinpoint just one. 

“I got so many memories, man, that I could talk about with this program,” Morris said, his eyes wandering past two reporters. 

The four seniors who spoke to reporters Monday — Morris, Naz Mitrou-Long, Deonte Burton and Matt Thomas — shared Morris’ sentiment. It was just too hard to drudge up specific memories.

While it was difficult to pull up moments on cue, all of the seniors agreed that Tuesday night was going to be rife with emotion. 

“[It’s] definitely an emotional feeling,” Thomas said. “Hopefully, I’ll be able to hold it together, at least until the end of the game. It’s going to be special. Lot of lifelong friendships here, especially with these guys that I’m going to be out there with.” 

But the seniors will have to find a way to push those emotions to the side to focus on an Oklahoma State team that enters Tuesday’s contest on a tear.

After losing the first six games of the Big 12 season, the Cowboys have won 10 of their last 11 games, including a victory against then-No. 7 West Virginia on the road.

“We’re not playing a bad team,” coach Steve Prohm said. “We’re playing a good team. So [senior night] will be emotional, but these guys will be ready to go.” 

The Cyclones are on a tear of their own. They’ve won their last five games and six of their last seven contests dating back to a road win against then-No. 3 Kansas. 

Iowa State entered the AP Top 25 for the first time in almost two months Monday, coming in at No. 24 after beating then-No. 9 Baylor at home Saturday. 

The last time around, in mid-January, Iowa State beat Oklahoma State 96-86. But the Cowboys have changed in various ways since then, particularly on defense, where they’ve allowed 70 points or fewer in three of their past four games. 

One of the winning streaks will come to an end Tuesday night, and the Cyclones are determined to keep theirs. But the excitement of it has been a motivational force for Iowa State.   

“You want to go into a game that’s pretty much going to be even between two teams — the two hottest teams in the Big 12 right now — and a lot of people are saying it’s them over us,” Mitrou-Long said. “We want to come out and have a fight because we knew we were underdogs and we knew we weren’t going to be given anything.” 

The Cyclones have come a long way since the beginning of the season. They’ve gone through losses to underwhelming teams like Iowa and Texas, and they’ve failed to beat top-ranked teams when they had the chance. 

Now Iowa State is playing some of its best basketball of the season. And the seniors have had a large hand in that. 

“When we hit adversity, they could’ve bailed,” Prohm said. “This year, when we hit adversity, they could’ve bailed. Their character, their commitment to this program has been second to none.” 

That’s why when Hilton Coliseum says goodbye to the seniors Tuesday night, it’ll be especially emotional for Prohm and fans. They helped pass the torch from Fred Hoiberg to Prohm and grow the program into an annually competitive team. 

“It’s just funny how the tradition around this program really changed,” Morris said. “It’s good when you have fans that care about you when you win or lose. And when you lose, you hear about it. That means this program is in the right direction, and there’s definitely a tradition here.”