Bucknell University
3-3
Iowa State
3-0
Bucknell Men's Basketball Drops Close One at Iowa State, 62-55
11/27/2004 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 27, 2004
AMES, Iowa - Curtis Stinson scored 20 points and backcourt mate Will Blalock added 15 to lead Iowa State to a narrow 62-55 victory over Bucknell in the championship game of the American Family Insurance Cyclone Challenge Saturday night at Hilton Coliseum.
Kevin Bettencourt scored 14 to lead Bucknell, which fell to 3-3. Charles Lee added 13 and Chris McNaughton 11 for the Bison.
Bucknell used an 11-0 run, capped by back-to-back jumpers from Bettencourt and Lee, to take a 26-25 lead with 3:40 to play in the first half. The lead changed hands four more times in the half, with Donald Brown's fastbreak alley-oop jam off a Lee feed giving the Bison their final lead of the night, 28-27 with 1:54 left in the half.
Two free throws by Jared Homan gave Iowa State (3-0) a 29-28 lead and started an 8-0 run to close the half, giving the Cyclones a 35-28 lead at the break.
McNaughton scored Bucknell's first five points of the second half, his layup 2:42 into the frame pulling Bucknell within four at 37-33. But the Cyclones went on a 7-1 run to take a 48-37 lead at the 12:16 mark. Iowa State still led by 11 inside eight minutes to play when Lee made two free throws and McNaughton tipped in a miss by Abe Badmus to make it 52-45.
Bucknell, which shot just 6-for-30 from 3-point range, missed two open looks to pull even closer in the final two minutes, and Stinson's layup followed by two Blalock free throws made it 61-50 with 1:04 left.
Iowa State shot just 1-for-6 from the foul line in the final 47 seconds, however, and a layup from McNaughton followed by a running 3-pointer from John Griffin made it 61-55 with 14 seconds left. Bucknell then forced a 5-second call on the inbounds, but John Clark's 3-pointer rimmed in and out and Damion Staple iced it with a free throw with 8.4 seconds left.
Bucknell defensively forced 24 Iowa State turnovers but committed 21 of its own. Bucknell had more steals and assists, but lost the rebounding battle to the bigger Cyclones 38-26.
The Bison return to action on Wednesday against Penn at the Palestra at 7 p.m.
