No. 14 Iowa St. 64, No. 24 Kansas 62

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) -- Some teams win by keeping their poise, some by getting lucky. No. 14 Iowa State did both Wednesday night and beat No. 24 Kansas 64-62, breaking a 17-game losing streak in Allen

Thursday, February 17th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) -- Some teams win by keeping their poise, some by getting lucky. No. 14 Iowa State did both Wednesday night and beat No. 24 Kansas 64-62, breaking a 17-game losing streak in Allen Fieldhouse and taking over first place in the Big 12. "This is monumental," coach Larry Eustachy said.

The Cyclones (22-3, 10-1), who hadn't won at Kansas since 1982, are just two wins shy of the school record and own their best conference start in school history. "For us to come in here and do it, it tells a lot," Eustachy said.

The Jayhawks (18-7, 7-4) took a 59-53 lead with 3:06 to play when Jeff Boschee, who was just 2-for-17 from the field, hit two free throws. But then Kansas lost its cool entirely, committing three straight turnovers.

Jamaal Tinsley stole the ball and drove the length of the court for layups twice over the final 1:40 and Marcus Fizer, the Big 12's scoring leader, hit an improbable off-balance 16-footer with 6 seconds left for what turned out to be the winning margin. "Those last three turnovers were mental turnovers," Boschee said. "I thought we were close to putting them away. Then they made some big shots."

Kansas coach Roy Williams, who is suffering through his worst season in 11 years, said "We lost our poise down the stretch." Fizer's off-balance jumper gave Iowa State a 63-59 lead before Boschee made a 3-pointer with 1.5 seconds to go. "I was going to shoot it off the glass," said Fizer, whose 15 points were more than six below his league-leading average. "But I got hit. The ref must have missed the call. It was acrazy way to win."

Paul Shirley hit a free throw in the final second to clinch the win and give the streaking Cyclones their first road victory over a ranked opponent since 1987.

After Tinsley made his two big plays, Shirley scored from inside and Michael Nurse hit a jumper to quiet the capacity crowd and give Iowa State a 61-59 lead with 1:11 to go. The crowd, Eustachy said, was the loudest he's heard all year. "We just performed in spite of it," he said "It was a game of spurts and we had a spurt at the end."

Tinsley, Shirley and Nurse all had 12 points. Nick Bradford and Drew Gooden each had 11 points for Kansas. Early in the second half, Gooden scored seven points in a 13-5 run as Kansas took a 48-37 lead and seemed en route to its 14th straight home win.

Kansas, which lost 74-66 at Iowa State last month, kept Fizer in check most of the night with a collapsing defense while Boschee had the worst night of his career. Boschee's first field goal, a long 3-pointer with about 4:30 to play, halted an Iowa State surge and put the Jayhawks on top 57-48.

Bradford's three-point play gave Kansas its biggest lead at48-37 with 11:11 to play. Then a dunk by the muscular 6-foot-8 Fizer ignited an 11-5 run by the Cyclones.