The ISU mens basketball team went into nationals eyeing the elusive national championship trophy. The club ultimately ended up one game short of their season long dream.

The Cyclones traveled to Pittsburgh, PA to compete in the National Club Basketball Championships, held April 10-12.

“Going into the tournament we felt that we really could go all the way,” said Jared Huhndorf, a junior power forward. “We were shooting well at the time and our team chemistry was great.”

After arriving to the team hotel at 7 a.m. on the day of its first game, the team had to get in a quick rest before a 2:30 pm tip-off against Virginia Tech in the first round. The Hokies were the defending national champions. The Cyclones were capitalized on several Virginia Tech mistakes and ran away with the game after being down by eight early in the contest. The final score was 78-61.

Cameron Mehls, who put up 19 points and aided the team on defense with several key steals, led the Cyclones. With a physical mindset, the Hokies were befuddled by the tight defense played by the Cyclones.

“We didn’t go into the game expecting them to be better than us,” said Da’Zhawn Davis, senior club president. “Just because they are the defending national champs doesn’t mean we couldn’t beat them. We wanted to play physical.”

As day one of the tournament ended, the bracket was in complete disarray. Syracuse, the No. 1 seed, went down in a nail-biter to Robert Morris. Eventual champions, East Carolina dismantled Lewis, the No. 4 seed. Iowa State, the No. 6 seed then pulled off the upset against Virginia Tech, the three seed. To complete the trend of upsets, seventh-seeded Kentucky knocked off two-seeded West Virginia.

The club relished the high of beating the defending champions, and with an upcoming game against lower seeded Kentucky, the Cyclones figured an easy win was in store for them.

“We saw Kentucky play and we started to look ahead after thinking we could beat them easily,” said Cameron Mehls, a sophomore shooting guard. “We completely underestimated them.”

In a tournament that featured high scoring and relatively no defense, the semifinal between Kentucky and Iowa State turned into a low scoring game compared to the beatings that other teams were receiving or giving.

The Cyclones again came out with a physical mindset, and the Wildcats responded by going blow-for-blow with the Cyclones. Kentucky was ahead for most of the game, but with about a minute left to play, Iowa State had managed to tie the game up and had possession of the ball.

Unable to capitalize on the opportunity, Iowa State ended up turning it over and lost all hope of going to the championship game. The final score was a heartbreaking, 76-72.

“I personally felt that we were better than them, but the outcome doesn’t show that,” said Davis.

After Kentucky defeated the Iowa State, the Wildcats went on the face East Carolina, the No. 5 seed. In another high scoring game, the Pirates won the national championship, 89-74.

After a stellar 2015 campaign, the ISU basketball club sees an even stronger team coming back next year. Eyes are already set on a deep run in the national tournament. 

“Next year we believe that we can win it all,” said Huhndorf. “We want to win it all.”