Tamin Lipsey scored 19 points and made a late steal to help No. 6 Iowa State win its home finale by overcoming No. 20 BYU 69-63 victory on Wednesday night in Ames, Iowa.
BYU went without a field goal for almost six minutes to close the game and didn’t score at all in the last four minutes.
Curtis Jones added 18 points for Iowa State (24-6, 13-4 Big 12), which remains one game behind top-ranked Houston.
Yet when Iowa State’s Robert Jones missed both free-throw attempts with 22 seconds left in the game, BYU trailed by just one after the rebound and was in position to win. Lipsey’s steal altered that plan.
That led to four Keshon Gilbert free throws in the last 10 seconds.
Richie Saunders poured in 20 points off the bench for BYU (21-9, 9-8), which was aiming for a three-game winning streak and a second road conquest of a top 10 team in nine nights. Jaxson Robinson added 11 points, also off the bench.
After scoring for the final time with 4:24 left on a pair of free throws by Saunders, the Cougars missed six straight shots from the field and one free throw and committed three turnovers.
The Cyclones won their fourth consecutive game. They avenged an 87-72 loss on Jan. 16 at BYU, their largest margin of defeat this season.
Iowa State, which trailed by as many as 14 points, burst into the lead on the strength of an 11-0 run to go up 58-56 and set up a tense closing stretch.
Saunders went 6-for-6 from the field with three 3-pointers in the first half, lifting the Cougars to a 38-27 edge at the break.
BYU managed only five points in the first seven minutes, shooting 0-for-5 on 3-pointers. The Cougars, though, were ahead with just less than nine minutes to play in the first half. BYU put together a 17-4 run to go up 27-18, with Saunders connecting on back-to-back 3-pointers.
By halftime, BYU was shooting 57.7 percent from the floor to Iowa State’s 32.4.
–Field Level Media
