Record basketball seasons end abruptly for ISU men and women

The NCAA tournament runs for the Iowa State men and women ended within hours of each other Saturday, both in close games that came down to some key shots in the final seconds. The Iowa State men built a seven-point lead with five and a half minutes to play and looked to be on their way to the Final Four before Michigan State made a furious comeback. The final seconds included a rare double-foul that negated Paul Shirley basket with the Cyclones leading by a point. Iowa State missed a shot and Michigan State then made one to take a lead they wouldn’t give up. Cyclone Coach Larry Eustachy was ejected minutes later with nine-point-nine seconds to play after getting two technicals for arguing with the referees over another foul call. The Spartans made six straight free throws and went on to a 75-64 win. The loss ended Iowa State’s storybook season that included the Big Twelve Title and a record 32 wins. Just about two hours later, the season ended for the Iowa State women’s basketball season team on a missed shot at the buzzer and a 66-65 loss to Penn State in the Midwest Regional Semifinal in Kansas City. Penn State’s Helen Darling hit a basket off a rebound to give her team a one-point lead with twelve-point-six seconds left in the game. Megan Taylor then missed a 15-foot shot for the Cyclones as time ran out. Cyclone CoachBill Fennelly said his team did all it could to win. He says he’d take a final shot from Taylor every time.Fouls plagued the Cyclones keeping their two starting post players on the bench much of the first half, and allowed Penn State to make a come back. Fennelly says that’s all part of the game. He says they had their special moment last year in beating U-Conn and this year Penn State had that moment by making one more play than the Cyclones.Fennelly says the loss shouldn’t dimish what the team accomplished this season including a Big Twelve title.Cyclone senior point guard Stacey Frese was held to just four points and no three-pointers. She credited Penn State’s defense.The game was the last for Frese and fellow seniors Monica Huelmann and Desiree Francis. Frese says she’s proud of the turnaround in the Cyclone program in her three years there.The Cyclones finish the season with a school record 27 wins and only six losses.