Iowa State fans finally had a chance to breathe — at least for a while.

After leading by as many as 20 points near the beginning of the second half Tuesday night against Kansas State, the Cyclones collapsed in remarkable fashion in a 10-minute span. 

The Wildcats, who shot just 35.7 percent from the field in the first half, shot 45.2 percent in the second half to come roaring back to take the lead with just over six minutes remaining.

But Iowa State (13-6, 5-3 Big 12) fended off Kansas State’s (15-5, 4-4 Big 12) late comeback attempt to pull out a 70-65 victory Tuesday night at Hilton Coliseum — the team’s second straight win within a margin of five points.

“They toughed it out,” coach Steve Prohm said as he sat down for his post-game press conference. “This is a great win for us. It’s a great win. I thought for the first 24 minutes, we were playing as good offensively as we’ve played in a long time. … It’s just about the next game in this league.”

In a season when the Cyclones have lost to four ranked opponents by a combined nine points, the team looked to be cruising to an easy win — something that has been few and far between. 

Iowa State senior Matt Thomas led the offensive charge for the Cyclones, bucketing six 3-pointers and racking up 20 points in the first half. He went 7-for-9 from the field and 6-of-8 from 3-point range.

Coming off a double-overtime win against Oklahoma on Saturday when the team’s offense found its stride late, Iowa State’s ball movement was clicking on all cylinders. The Cyclones assisted on 10 of their first 14 shots and took a commanding 43-26 lead into halftime.

Thomas, who was approaching Iowa State’s single-game 3-point record of 10, drained his first 3-point attempt of the second half to raise his total to seven on the night. He didn’t make another long ball for the rest of the game, finishing the night with a career-high 25 points. 

The Wildcats started clawing away at the 20-point Iowa State lead with just over 12 minutes left to play. It started with three straight misses at the free-throw line for Thomas, which turned into a 19-3 run that gave Kansas State a one-point lead with five minutes to play.

“When you play in this league, there’s going to be runs,” Prohm said. “I didn’t think they would push it that close.”

Iowa State continued to push Kansas State away but made costly mistakes down the stretch that almost cost it the game. With just over 20 seconds remaining and Iowa State leading by a possession, Thomas threw a bounce pass off the inbound right into the hands of a Wildcat. 

But seconds later, Naz Mitrou-Long took advantage of a similar blunder on Kansas State’s end and took the ball back. 

“That turnover was on me,” Thomas said. “I let that dude come right in front of me. But then I saw Naz got the steal, so I was off the hook for the time being. Like I said, very sloppy at the end, but I’m just happy we pulled out the win.” 

The Cyclones, despite Deonte Burton’s miss on a dunk with seconds remaining, survived another scare. But after the game, it was hard to tell the Cyclones had just blown a 20-point lead and lived to tell the tale.

It was all smiles and laughter.

“It’s hard to win in this league,” Prohm said with an ear-to-ear grin. “And I’ve done that — analyzing wins and analyzing everything. And you don’t win by enough. And I’ve done that before, when success is expected. That’s a miserable way to do it. Now I’ll go over the tape tonight and talk to the team Thursday and we’ll correct some things, but I’m as happy as I’ve ever been right now.”