Cyclones Fall To Northwestern, 67-65

CHICAGO ? Iowa State shot 28.0 percent from the field in the second half in a 67-65 loss to Northwestern in the championship game of the Chicago Invitational Saturday night. A second-half cold spell doomed the Cyclones, as ISU went through a 12-minute drought where they made just one field goal, turning an 8-point ISU lead into a NU advantage.

It was the first loss of the season for the Cyclones, who fall to 6-1. The Wildcats improve to 5-1.

“If you are going to beat a team like Northwestern, you can't give up lay-ups,” ISU head coach Greg McDermott said. “You can give up some threes, but you can't give up a bunch of lay-ups. The five or six lay-ups we gave up during the course of the game was certainly the difference.”

After spotting a 3-pointer from John Shurna to open the game, Iowa State rattled off 10-straight points to go ahead 10-3 with 14:27 left in the first half. Marquis Gilstrap had five points in the run.

The Wildcats bounced right back with consecutive 3-pointers by Shurna, one from beyond the arc and the other the conventional way, to cut the gap to 10-9.

The Cyclones then went cold as the Wildcats mounted another run to take the lead at 22-17 with 8:46 left in the first half after Shurna made another conventional 3-point play. The Wildcats weren't whistled for their first foul until 7:16 left before intermission.

The Cyclones finally revived their offense, as Lucca Staiger drained back-to-back 3-pointers to push ISU back out in front 30-28 with just over five minutes left. The Cyclones made 8-of-9 shots from the floor in the latter part of the second period to help retake the lead. Staiger finished the first half with 12 points behind four treys, as ISU went into the break with a 39-34 lead. Shurna had 17 first-half points to pace the Wildcats.

Two quick buckets to start the second half, one coming from a alley-oop lob from Diante Garrett to Craig Brackins, gave ISU a 43-34 lead. However, NU's Jeremy Nash canned back-to-back 3-pointers to stop the momentum and make it a 43-40 Cyclone lead with 16:16 left in the game.

Jamie Vanderbeken made a trey to give ISU a 48-40 lead with 13:20 left, but things went south for the Cyclones, as the Wildcats went on a 16-5 run to go ahead 56-53 at the 7:48 mark of the second half.

ISU continued to go cold, making only one field goal in the 12-minute stretch to fall behind 61-55 after Davide Curletti buried a trey with 3:54 remaining in the game.

A lay-in from Michael Thompson gave the Wildcats their biggest lead at seven points (63-56) with 3:05 left in the game.

ISU kept fighting, however, with a Brackins basket in the paint and a Staiger trey to cut it to 63-61 with 1:33 left. Garrett got a steal with a minute left and the Cyclones set up a 3-point attempt from Staiger, but it was off the mark with 0:40 seconds left. Nash made a pair of free-throws on the other end to move NU back up by four points (65-61).

Brackins was fouled with 0:10 seconds left, making 1-of-2 shots at the line, but his miss went out of bounds off a Wildcat to give ISU one last chance. Vanderbeken got the ball in the corner and launched it, but it was off the mark.

Brackins and Staiger led ISU with 18 points, respectively. Staiger made 6-of-13 shots from 3-point range to reach 100 in his career. Garrett added 10 assists in the game, his sixth double-digit assist game of his career.

Brackins and Staiger were named to the all-tournament team.

ISU is back in action on Wednesday, playing host to Northern Iowa at 7 p.m. in Hilton Coliseum.

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Team Stats

Lucca Staiger

Craig Brackins

Marquis Gilstrap

Jamie Vanderbeken

Players Mentioned

Craig Brackins

Craig Brackins

Diante Garrett

Diante Garrett

Marquis Gilstrap

Lucca Staiger

Lucca Staiger

Jamie Vanderbeken

Jamie Vanderbeken

Sponsors

Iowa State University Athletics