Brackins Double-Double Lifts ISU Past Colorado, 64-63

Saturday, January 30

Ames, Iowa

8:00 PM

Iowa State

13-8, 2-4

Colorado

11-10, 2-5

Colorado

Iowa State

Brackins Double-Double Lifts ISU Past Colorado, 64-63

01.30.2010 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: cyclones.com

AMES, Iowa ? Craig Brackins tallied 22 of his 27 points in the second half to help Iowa State comeback from 12 points down in the second half and escape with a 64-63 win over Colorado Saturday night in Hilton Coliseum.

ISU led by five points late, but CU's Marcus Relphorde missed a drive at the buzzer to allow the Cyclones to survive and improve their record to 13-8 overall and 2-4 in Big 12 play. Brackins finished with his 25th career double-double with 27 points and 13 rebounds.

The Cyclones were sloppy at the beginning, committing six turnovers and making just 1-of-11 shots from the field to fall behind 12-2 with 13:45 left in the first half.

The CU then increased its lead to 18-4 on back-to-back treys from Dwight Thorne and Austin Dufault. A 9-3 run by the Cyclones cut the lead to 21-13 with 9:11 left in the opening period. Brackins had five points in the run.

After Cory Higgins made it 24-13 CU with three free throws, the Cyclones increased their defensive pressure and rallied with a 12-0 run to take the lead at 25-24 with 3:51 left before the break. ISU took advantage of early Buffalo foul trouble, converting 7-of-8 free-throws in the run.

The Buffs answered the Cyclone comeback with the final seven points of the half to go into the break with a 31-25 lead. ISU had 10 first-half blocks, led by Justin Hamilton's four swats.

The Buffs continued their surge, as Higgins scored the first six points of the second half to push the CU lead to 37-25. ISU then slowly started to chip away at the lead, going on a 16-2 run to retake the lead at 41-39 with 11:13 left in the game. Brackins got hot for ISU, tallying 10 of ISU's 16 points in the rally.

ISU was smart and continued to feed Brackins in the post. The Cyclone lead reached five points (56-51) with 4:26 left in the game behind three-straight baskets from Brackins.

CU closed the gap to one point at 56-55 with back-to-back hoops from Higgins, but Brackins came up big again with two-straight buckets, the second one a slam coming from a Chris Colvin dish to make it 60-55 ISU with 1:48 left.

Relphorde buried a trey the next time down the court to cut the Cyclone lead to 60-58. The lead was trimmed to one point when Higgins scored and was fouled on a drive with 0:23 seconds left to make it 62-61 ISU. Scott Christopherson was held on the inbounds, sending the sophomore to the line where he made a pair of free-throws to give ISU a 3-point lead, but Higgins quickly made a lay-in to make it a slim one-point margin (64-63) with 0:16 left.

An errant in-bound pass by Brackins gave the ball back to CU, but Relphorde missed on his driving shot at the buzzer to allow ISU to escape with the victory.

The Cyclones held a 52-26 edge rebounding to nullify a 21-4 turnover margin in favor of the Buffs.

Gilstrap joined Justin Hamilton and Brackins in double-figures with 13 boards. Hamilton had his first career double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

ISU will travel to Baylor Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. The game will be televised on Mediacom Connections.