AMES, Iowa – Sixth-ranked Iowa State made plays big and small, though always critical, to turn a 10-point second-half deficit into a 70-67 victory — a beautiful, wonderful and incredible victory — over No. 2 Houston on Feb. 17.
“Stepping up and having the courage to make the plays that need to be made,” future Hall of Famer and Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said, “they did tonight, and we didn’t.”
The moment that will always lead any discussion about this instant classic will, undoubtedly, be Nate Heise’s go-ahead 3-pointer with 77 ticks of the clock remaining.
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Earlier in the half, Heise briefly lost vision in his right eye after being poked, but, luckily enough, Heise has a third eye.
“It was funny — with about a minute and a half left, I went up to (teammate Jamarion Batemon),” Heise said, “and I told him either him or I are going to have a 3 in the corner, and it’s going to win us the game.”
Which is exactly what happened.
Trailing by two, Iowa State saw its possession break down, looking destined to fail as Joshua Jefferson had the ball at the top of the key without much chance of making a play himself with the shot clock barreling toward zero. The virtuoso passing big man, though, made the perfect skip pass to the corner, where Heise caught it and seemingly released it in the same motion.
Splash.
“(The Cougars) take away a lot of things, but sometimes that backside skip is open,” Heise said of how he came to the prediction he shared with Batemon.
Still, he had to make the dang thing.
“It was one of the easier mindset things because you really have no other choice,” Heise said. “You’re not going to be able to pass the ball — there’s not enough time. When you’ve got no other choice, it’s muscle memory.”
Heise’s triple will be the moment that lasts from this game, but it arrived only because of so many that led up to it.
Like Batemon’s own 3 in the corner on the previous possession, one that sort of arrived by chance. Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger was trying to get Batemon out of the game for Milan Momcilovic, but the 51% 3-point shooter didn’t get to the scorer’s table early. Then Houston’s Milos Uzan missed the front-end of a one-and-one, so in Batemon stayed.
Then he buried a triple, and Momcilovic headed back to the bench to watch his teammate and fellow Milwaukee metro native finish the game.
“(Momcilovic looked at me and he said, ‘You want me to go back to the bench?’” Otzelberger said. “Almost like he was halfway up already saying, let him go, he’s looking good.’
“That speaks to what a great leader and teammate Milan is.”
If we’re talking about great leaders and teammates, though, Tamin Lipsey gets top billing.
The Ames native and Iowa State senior made the type of plays only he can time and again for the Cyclones, giving the type of boost you wouldn’t have even thought possible.
“There’s no script when Tamin’s out there,” Otzelberger said. “He just finds a way to make plays nobody else has seen a guy make.”
The most important of which came with four seconds remaining.
Blake Buchanan, a 44% free-throw shooter, stepped to the line to try to improve upon Iowa State’ two-point lead. But, as 44% free-throw shooters often do, Buchanan missed the front-end.
Cue the “Mighty Mouse” music, though, because here Lipsey comes to save the day, swooping in to steal the rebound and the win.
Which, crazily enough, was the third time Iowa State got an offensive rebound on a free throw.
And if that’s not zany enough for you, how about the Cyclones playing the last 18 minutes of the game without a turnover against a Houston team that ranks among the nation’s best at creating turnovers.
The Cyclones needed it all against a truly terrific Houston team that matched the Cyclones punch for punch for almost the entire evening. Both teams are no-doubt Final Four contenders.
But when Heise’s 3 found the net, and Hilton Coliseum got as loud as I’ve heard it since the 21-point second-half comeback against Oklahoma in 2015, the Cyclones proved themselves just a little bit better on their homecourt.
“That’s how you win,” Sampson said.
Play after play after play.
Then, when that final one comes, you make that one, too, and collect all the glory, memories and possibilities that come along with it.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Iowa State basketball beats No. 2 Houston in instant classic
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