AMES, Iowa—In a matchup between two teams fighting to escape the Big 12 basement, Colorado proved it truly deserves last place.
Craig Brackins scored 26 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as Iowa State crushed Colorado 70-42 on Wednesday night, snapping a six-game losing streak.
The Cyclones, who held the hapless Buffaloes to a Big 12 record-low nine points in the first half, led by as much as 36 and cruised to their 17th victory in 18 home games against Colorado.
Iowa State (13-11, 2-7 Big 12) opened the game on a 34-6 run—scoring 21 straight points during one stretch—and led 37-9 at halftime.
Ten different players scored for the Cyclones, but Brackins was only one in double figures as Iowa State coach Greg McDermott—for once—was able to clear his bench.
“It was how hard they competed and the extra effort and having a few smiles on their faces—that’s been missing for a while,” McDermott said. “That was the difference.”
Big 12 games are rarely decided by halftime, and what made Iowa State’s first-half performance so extraordinary was that the Cyclones had given no indication they could off such a feat.
Iowa State had lost its last six by a total of 91 points, a stretch that included a 55-49 defeat at Colorado on Jan. 27, and it entered play trying to avoid its longest losing streak in conference play since 1987-88.
But given a chance to avenge that loss in Boulder, Iowa State dominated from the opening tip.
Brackins opened the game with three quick scores, two in the paint and one off a mid-range jumper, and followed with a 3 that put Iowa State ahead 13-2. The Cyclones jumped ahead 26-6 with 7:16 left in the first half on a 3-point play by Brackins, and Lucca Staiger and Bryan Petersen followed with 3s to push the lead to 26.
Brackins made it 34-6 on a jumper with 4:33 left in the first half, and by then he had 17 points—almost three times as many as Colorado.
“I felt like we went out and played hard, but we also played and had fun. It was fun out there,” said Brackins, who posted his 10th double-double this season in just 22 minutes.
Colorado finally stopped Iowa State’s run of 21 straight points on Dwight Thorne II’s layup. But the Buffs missed 17 of their first 20 shots, went nearly nine minutes without scoring and had seven turnovers against just four field goals in the first half.
It “was a blur, a bad dream. It was horrible,” Thorne II said. “We just weren’t ready to play.”
Amazingly, Thorne II had all nine of Colorado’s first half points. His teammates went 0-of-15 from the field, which was a major reason why the Cyclones were ahead by 28 at halftime.
Texas A&M held the previous first-half low of 10, set on March 1, 2008 against Oklahoma.
“Everyone that played for us in that first half gave us a great effort defensively,” McDermott said. ‘We took away their strengths, we were quick to get to the guys we didn’t to shoot it, and we were slow in getting to guys that, we didn’t care if they shot it.”
Thorne II had 14 points to lead Colorado (9-14, 1-8), which extended its conference road losing streak to 26 games. It go so bad for the Buffs that when Nate Tomlinson hit a 3 to make it 42-12, they were serenaded by mock chants of “double digits” from the student section.
The Buffs had thrown a scare into No. 2 Oklahoma before losing 77-72 on Saturday, but they shot 31 percent from the field and had as many turnovers, 13, as field goals.
“It’s about moving forward and understanding why this happened,” Colorado coach Jeff Bzdelik said.
