No Longer a Swirl of Excitement for Iowa St.

There should be plenty of tickets available for the final two days of the Big 12 tournament, and they’ll probably go cheap.

About 12,000 Iowa State fans who flocked to Kansas City, Mo., expecting to see their No. 7-ranked Cyclones romp to their second consecutive tournament championship headed home early.

Big 12 player of the year Jamaal Tinsley scored only eight points before fouling out, and the Cyclones shot 31% on Friday in a 62-49 loss to Baylor in the quarterfinals.

“I apologize to our fans,” said Iowa State’s Larry Eustachy, the Big 12 coach of the year. “Money is tight and a lot of them made the drive down here.”

Now the question for Iowa State, 25-5 and the regular-season Big 12 champion, and its fans is whether they will get to come back to Kemper Arena for the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament, which starts next week. Losing to Baylor (19-10)--the Big 12 tournament’s eighth-seeded team--could affect Iowa State’s hopes of being placed in the Midwest Regional in Kansas City as a No. 2 seed.

“I don’t know about that,” Eustachy said. “I would hope they would look at the entire season and not just 40 minutes. We’ll be dealt the hand we’re dealt.”

The Cyclones had twice as many turnovers (16) as field goals (eight) in the first half and then missed their first six shots of the second half.

Baylor--a 21-point loser to Iowa State in January --led by 10 points at halftime and never let the Cyclones get closer than eight. Tinsley fouled out with five minutes left.

DeMarcus Minor, who had 30 points in Baylor’s first-round victory over Colorado, scored 23 points against Iowa State, which became the first No. 1 seed in the Big 12 tournament to lose its first game.

Baylor’s semifinal opponent is No. 20 Texas (24-7)--a 55-54 winner over Oklahoma State (20-8). It was the seventh victory in a row for Texas and third in as many games over Oklahoma State.

No. 9 Kansas (24-5) and No. 16 Oklahoma (24-6) play in the other semifinal.

Nolan Johnson atoned for a crucial missed free throw by scoring the go-ahead basket for Oklahoma in a 67-65 victory over over Missouri (19-11).

With Oklahoma trailing 65-63 with 13.2 seconds left, Johnson made the first of two free throws but missed the second. However, Oklahoma got the ball back when Missouri’s Kareem Rush and T.J. Soyoye collided going for the rebound and the ball went out of bounds.

Johnson then scored the decisive basket with 3.2 seconds left. Johnson finished with 20 points, while Rush had 31.

Kansas, meanwhile, beat Kansas State (11-18) for the 22nd consecutive time in a 94-63 victory--the most points scored by the Jayhawks in the tournament.