AMES, Iowa-
Iowa State started playing defense just in time and Corey McIntosh finally found his shooting touch.
That combination was enough, barely, to get Iowa State a victory on Wednesday night.
McIntosh gave Iowa State some unexpected scoring with a season-high 13 points and the Cyclones shut Colorado down at the end of each half to eke out a 55-53 victory after trailing by 15.
“It’s never going to be a thing of beauty for us offensively because we can’t shoot the ball well enough,” Iowa State coach Greg McDermott said. “But to our guys’ credit, when it came to crunch time, we got the ball where it needed to go.”
That was to Jiri Hubalek, whose turnaround shot on the low block gave Iowa State a 55-53 lead with 1:43 left.
Colorado missed three shots after Hubalek’s bucket, then got one more chance when Hubalek misfired on the front end of a 1-and-1 with 10 seconds to go. But once Iowa State used up two of the three fouls it had to give, only four seconds remained and Richard Roby fumbled the ball going up for a long 3-point shot while being guarded by McIntosh and Rahshon Clark.
“We didn’t have a lot of time to get the ball to our best player,” Colorado’s Kal Bay said. “We tried to get it to Rich, but he was covered pretty well.”
Mike Taylor added 12 points for the Cyclones (14-13, 5-8 Big 12), Wesley Johnson scored 10 to go with nine rebounds and Hubalek finished with nine points.
McIntosh, who had been averaging just 3.7 points, went 3-for-5 on 3-pointers. He had been 4-for-18 behind the arc coming in and had not made a 3 since Iowa State’s loss at Colorado on Jan. 17. His previous high against a Big 12 opponent had been six points.
“I was just playing loose,” said McIntosh, who reached double figures for only the second time. “Mike did a good job hitting me early. He told me if I get a good look to take the shot.”
Roby led Colorado (6-17, 2-11) with 23 points and Dominique Coleman added 11.
The Buffaloes scored only once in their final 11 possessions—a fadeaway by Roby that tied it at 53 with 2:08 left. They had only one basket in the last 10 possessions of the first half, which Iowa State finished with a 13-2 run to cut the lead to 30-26.
McIntosh capped the burst with a 3-pointer just before the buzzer.
“Corey made the right read,” McDermott said. “In that situation, you want to get a good look at the basket and Corey got a good look.”
Earlier, Colorado had scored at will, breaking down the Cyclones’ defense time after time for close-in shots. Of the Buffaloes’ first nine baskets, seven were layups and another was a dunk.
They made four layups in jumping ahead 9-0 and held leads of 18-4 and 28-13 before the Cyclones got it together.
“We started to guard the dribble,” McDermott said.
Iowa State twice got to within a point in the second half and finally tied it at 51 when Taylor banked in a 3 from the top of the key with 4:12 remaining. Johnson’s follow shot gave Iowa State its first lead, 53-51, with 2:37 to ply.
“This one really hurts,” Colorado’s Marcus King-Stockton said. “You can’t really say it was one thing. We had some turnovers and some lapses on defense, and before we knew it they were back in the game.”
Colorado played without starting guard Xavier Silas, who was sidelined by a left ankle injury. Silas averages 11.9 points and scored 19 in the first game with Iowa State.
