Stinson shines for Cyclones

Iowa State coach Wayne Morgan knew all along — forced to choose, he rather would have the dinged-up Curtis Stinson finish the game than start it.

And, man, did he ever.

Stinson’s pull-up jumper from 12 feet with 5.3 seconds left in overtime secured a stunning 63-61 ISU victory over Kansas University at Allen Fieldhouse, one of college basketball’s most feared venues.

It was the seventh point of the overtime for Stinson — accounting for every one of ISU’s post-regulation scores. Overall, the sophomore finished with 29 points, heroically catapulting the Cyclones to their seventh straight victory.

“He maybe made the biggest shot of the year,” Morgan said. “He never had any doubt.”

Stinson was in pain from an injured left hand.

Coming in, Morgan decided to rest Stinson early, hoping he’d be better late. Thus, Stinson started Saturday’s game on the bench.

“When the year’s over, he’s going to have surgery,” Morgan said. “We just tried to shorten the game for him a little bit with that pain.”

The overtime ended up stretching the game out anyway. Down 53-44 with two minutes left in regulation, the Jayhawks started a furious comeback that was helped immensely by the Cyclones’ dismal performance at the free-throw line.

Stinson missed three charities in the last 1:33, including a crucial free throw with 17 seconds left that enabled KU’s Keith Langford to slash his way to a game-tying two-pointer before time expired.

It could have been an excuse for an exhausted Cyclone squad to fold up shop, but it didn’t.

Instead, Stinson answered with a fantastic overtime, taking almost all of Iowa State’s shots while being defended closely by KU’s best guards. His last attempt was a pull-up jumper over KU’s Aaron Miles just inside the free-throw line.

Nothing but net.

“Rahshon (Clark) was wide open, but I didn’t want to turn it over,” Stinson said of the game-winner. “The best thing for me to do was shoot it, and it dropped.”

It finished off an improbable victory Saturday with so much stacked against Iowa State — a rowdy KU crowd; a second-ranked, senior-dominated Jayhawk squad; and a paper-thin ISU rotation hit even harder by Jared Homan’s disqualification after the senior picked up his controversial fifth foul on Wayne Simien in the overtime.

Asked if he thought it was a bad call, Homan laughed.

“Rewind the tape, and take a look,” he said.

In the end, it doesn’t matter much. Iowa State (15-8 overall, 7-5 Big 12 Conference) built even more momentum from the road victory and now has an even stronger case for NCAA Tournament consideration.

“It’s a statement that we are coming,” Stinson said. “We are not asking anybody to give us anything. We don’t get a lot of respect as it is. But it says, ‘Here we come, and we can play with anybody in the country.'”