Iowa State men’s basketball hangs on, takes down Oklahoma

AMES — One step at a time, or at least one possession at a time, was the message from Iowa State men’s basketball coach T.J. Otzelberger during the Cyclones’ win over Oklahoma on Saturday.

Iowa State leaned on an aggressive style of offense more than usual, going downhill toward the basket, fighting through double-teams and attacking the rim throughout the game.

Result: Iowa State protected Hilton Coliseum with a 21-point victory over the Sooners, 75-54.

“We just gotta continue to be who we are and who we can be and that’s the physical team — ball pressure, rebounding effort and toughness with the basketball,” Otzelberger said after the Cyclones’ 18th win of the season.

Iowa State shot a blistering 75 percent from the field in the first half, with only five attempts from 3-point range. That’s the best shooting half the Cyclones have had during Big 12 play.

In a season defined by offensive issues and an ability to shoot themselves out of games at times, the Cyclones kept hitting the paint to the tune of an 18-4 inside advantage at halftime.

“Focus, really that was a big thing,” Izaiah Brockington said. “We just wanted to stay focused and not get complacent.”

Brockington did his usual thing and paced the Cyclones with 12 points at the break, and finished the game with 22 points on 10-of-13 shooting. While he was finding his midrange spots, Brockington got up to the rim and finished through contact.

But as good as the first half was, a familiar sense of nerves stuck around, even with the Cyclones holding a 15-point halftime lead.

Oklahoma kept it within single digits for a majority of the first 10 minutes of the second half and cut it to five with 13 minutes left.

The Sooner threat reminded Otzelberger and the Cyclones of their last home game — a 75-69 loss to Kansas State on Feb. 12, despite Iowa State holding a 15-point lead at one point.

“Very aware, very aware,” Otzelberger said when asked how much the Cyclones were thinking about the Feb. 11 loss. “(We) wanted to make sure we stayed on the next possession.”

And then, Tyrese Hunter started the momentum shift.

With 5:42 left to play, and the Cyclones leading 59-52, Hunter pulled up from the top of the key and put in a 3-pointer.

“That’s a huge shot,” Otzelberger said. “For Tyrese, we want him taking the right shots and we have confidence in him to do that, knock ’em down, that’s something we’ve been talking about a lot. That was a big one for us.”

The run all but ended the Sooners’ chances.

After the 3, the Cyclones made five of their next six baskets while the Sooners went 0 for 4 with a pair of turnovers in just under three minutes.

Hilton got rocking and the Cyclones got their swagger back. Was it the best stretch the Cyclones have played all year?

“I think it might have been,” Brockington said. “Those runs start on the defensive end.”

The Cyclones put the hammer down and never let the Sooners regain the lead, and improved to 18-9 overall and 5-9 in Big 12 play.

“It did feel like we were losing a little bit of focus, but I feel like we've learned from previous games and we just have to cut it off right there, don’t let problems compound,” Brockington said about having the 15-0 run. “Move on to the next thing.”