Ames, Iowa — Following Wednesday night's heartbreaking home loss, Iowa State basketball coach Larry Eustachy appeared as if he'd been through a heavyweight boxing match.
Or at least the media conference prior to a title fight.
The Cyclones traded uppercuts and body blows with second-ranked Kansas University before the Jayhawks scored the final seven points and pulled away for an 88-81 victory at Hilton Coliseum.
Asked if he felt as drained as he looked, Eustachy said, "You'd have to ask my wife that. I'm not sure. I don't have a mirror.
"It was a big game," he added. "It would have given our players a lot of credibility to win this thing, but it didn't work out. They're all big. I looked like this, I imagine, after Kansas State, I think. I'll probably look like this after Nebraska."
It's easy to see why Eustachy would have been spent. He was vocal and energetic from the time he received a technical foul in the opening two minutes to the final buzzer.
After seeing his team fall behind by 12 points with 14:10 remaining, Eustachy's high-impact coaching sparked the Cyclones to a 20-4 run for a 70-66 lead with 6:39 to play. The two teams traded buckets down the stretch until the Jayhawks' final push.
"It's extremely frustrating," ISU sophomore forward Shane Power said. "I can't even imagine how coach feels. If we had played our game on defense and rebounded, we wouldn't have had to make plays down the stretch."
Power, who scored 15 points, had a good look at the biggest play down the stretch KU senior guard Jeff Boschee's back-breaking three-pointer with 36 seconds remaining. Power knew Boschee's three was good as soon as he shot it.
"It was a case of having two NBA guys down low," Power said of Nick Collison and Drew Gooden. "That's what we were worried about. Just for a second we lost vision. He (Boschee) came open with confidence like a senior and knocked it down."
Power and ISU sophomore guard Jake Sullivan continued to punish KU, combining for 42 points on 13-of-24 shooting. The two who scorched the Jayhawks for 40 points last year in Ames were 7-of-11 from three-point range.
In the end, though, Iowa State couldn't overcome its inexperience.
"We're young and we keep getting put in these situations, it seems, every single game," said Sullivan, who added a career-high six assists. "We keep learning from them. Like coach said, we're playing for the Big 12 tournament and the second half of the Big 12 season."
Kansas was just the second team to shoot better than 50 percent from the floor against ISU, reaching the 54.8 mark. The Jayhawks' 88 points also was the most allowed by the Cyclones since Kansas State scored 92 in 1996.
"Give Kansas a lot of credit," Eustachy said. "They hung in there, hung in there and won the game at the end. Under a minute to go, it's tied, we're at the foul line and don't make free throws and they make a three. That's how close the game was. It was tied after a 39-minute game.
"It shows you maybe what our team is capable of, but we're far from the team we'd hoped to have by now."
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