Iowa State Cyclones guard Tamin Lipsey (3) celebrates after a three-point score against BYU during the second half in the Senior Day Big-12 conference showdown of an NCAA college basketball at Hilton Coliseum on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, in Ames, Iowa. © Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK
AMES —Before the season started, Iowa State’s players gathered to sketch out several goals.
One of the most popular aspirations? Finish unbeaten at Hilton Coliseum — which the sixth-ranked Cyclones hadn’t done since 2000-01.
“I wasn’t alive the last time,” said ISU point guard Tamin Lipsey, who notched his best game of the Big 12 season in Wednesday’s pulse-pounding 68-63 comeback win over No. 20 BYU on senior night at Hilton. “It’s a great feeling. Obviously, I’ve heard a lot about that 2000-01 team. They were such a great team and (there’s) a lot of history behind that.”
That deep and talented Cyclone team eventually reached the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight. This defense-driven, deep and talented ISU team nurtures similar high hopes, but the Cougars (21-9, 9-8) humbled Lipsey and his teammates most of the night. BYU led 38-27 at halftime and stretched its advantage to 14, at 46-32, with 15:56 remaining. ISU shaved its deficit to nine on a Keshon Gilbert free throw roughly three minutes later and a sold-out Hilton crowd of 14,267 reached an eardrum-assailing fever pitch, helping to buoy the far-fetched comeback along.
“I felt like (the crowd) hit a new high, even some of the volume and how loud it was in there, and we needed it,” said Cyclone head coach T.J. Otzelberger, whose team (24-6, 13-4) capped an 18-0 home season. “We needed all of it. But it’s really cool (and) it’s a credit to our guys to win 18 straight at home, especially (because) you’re gonna have some you don’t play as well. You’re gonna have some you have to come back and win. It’s not gonna be perfect, but really proud of our guys for their resiliency. It’s pretty cool deal, so out of respect (for) everybody that’s come before us in this program, it means a lot.”
ISU closed the game on a 7-0 run while holding BYU scoreless in the final 4:32. The Cyclones recorded eight consecutive stops down the stretch while nursing a 64-63 lead for most of the final 2:51 before Gilbert sealed the win with four free throws in the last 10 seconds.
“After the game, the first thing we talked about was how we had eight stops in a row,” said Lipsey, who scored a conference season-high 19 points while reeling off a conference season-high-tying five steals. “The offense sort of takes care of itself when you lock down on defense. You don’t (have to) think as much on the offensive side. It just flows better, so we were able to just get stops back to back to back to back and we just played with a better flow and a lot of confidence that we were able to make big plays.”
The Cyclone’s biggest run — an 11-0 spurt — came on the heels of Gilbert’s free throw early in the second half that cut the deficit to nine. Lipsey drained two of his Big 12 season-best 3-pointers in that span, Curtis Jones completed a 3-point play and senior forward Hason Ward drained two free throws with 7:24 left to give ISU its first lead (58-56) since the 9:46 mark of the first half.
“(It’s) big when you go on runs like that, especially at home, because now the crowd gets into it,” said Jones, who scored 18 points and rose for a pivotal block shot of a layup attempt down the stretch. “We really didn’t have a lot of moments where it looked like we could get back into the game until that moment, so it was huge.”
Senior big men Robert Jones and Tre King combined for 13 points and 10 rebounds in their final game at Hilton and Ward added four points and a blocked shot for his local curtain call. Curtis Jones matched Lipsey with three 3-pointers — and even though he participated in senior night festivities, he might not be ready to move on. He retains one more season of eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was really cool to be a part of (senior night) and get the (framed) jersey and stuff like that, but as far as next year?” Jones said, grinning. “I would say I plan to be back.”
