Cyclones Fall To Colorado, 67-55

Saturday, March 1

Boulder, Colo.

5:00 PM

Iowa State

14-15, 4-10

Colorado

11-17, 3-11

Iowa State

Colorado

03.01.2008 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: cyclones.com

BOULDER, Colo.? Marcus Hall scored a career-high 31 points to pace Colorado to a 67-55 win over Iowa State Saturday afternoon in Boulder. The loss drops ISU to 14-15 on the season and 4-10 in Big 12 play.

“We didn't start the game well and we didn't start the second half well,” ISU head coach Greg McDermott said. “Those are areas we pride ourselves in, and for the most part we have done that well this season. That was not the case today.”

Another slow start plagued the Cyclones. Bryan Petersen hit a 3-pointer to give ISU a 3-2 lead, but CU countered with three-straight buckets from Hall to take an 8-3 lead with 14:58 left in the first half. ISU had five turnovers in the first five minutes of the game and connected on just 2-of-its-first-12 shots from the floor.

The Buffs increased their lead to eight points (16-8) on a Marcus King-Stockton tip-in at the 7:50 mark in the first half. However, ISU answered on the other end with a 3-pointer from Sean Haluska to cut the lead to 16-11. The Buffs then promptly went on a 6-2 run behind a pair of floaters from Hall to take a 22-13 first-half lead. The Cyclones then countered with a long trey from Charles Boozer and an inside score from Cory Johnson to reduce the CU lead to 22-18 with just under four minutes remaining before intermission.

CU went into the break with a 26-24 lead behind 14 first-half points from Hall. ISU had to go to its bench in the opening period, as Wesley Johnson played just seven minutes after picking up two quick fouls. Rahshon Clark was also sidelined, missing the first game of his career with a sore knee. His 60-game consecutive start streak ended as well.

“With Rahshon out we were forced to have one of our better defenders not on the floor,” McDermott said. “Anytime you lose your best defender and one of your best rebounders it will effect your game.”

CU broke open the game by scoring the first 10 points of the second half to go up 36-24 with 17:12 remaining in the contest. Back-to-back baskets from Richard Roby pushed the Buffalo lead to 15 points (43-28), but the Cyclones quickly cut the deficit to 10 points on a Diante Garrett trey and a Craig Brackins dunk to make it a 43-33 game with 12:10 left in the contest.

Marcus Hall pushed the Buffs back up by 13 points (50-37), but three-straight 3-pointers from Wesley Johnson cut the lead to 50-46 with 6:40 left in the game. The Buffs then answered with two huge buckets from Hall and Roby to stop the Cyclone rally.

ISU cut the lead to five points with a pair of free-throws, but Hall again drained a big 3-pointer to give the Buffs an eight-point cushion (59-51) with just over three minutes left in the game.

Wesley Johnson led ISU with 13 points behind three treys. Johnson now has 44 on the season to rank 20th on ISU's single-season 3-pointers made list. Brackins added eight points and seven boards. The Cyclones shot just 32.7 percent from the field and allowed CU to make 72.7 percent from the floor in the second period.