AMES - Greg McDermott shook Jared Josten's hand and whispered something in his ear.

After a 61-48 defeat Tuesday night to his former school for a second consecutive season, the Iowa State basketball coach marveled at the improvement Josten - a guard McDermott recruited and coached for three years at Northern Iowa - had made.

"I'm as proud of him as anybody I've ever been associated with as a player," McDermott said. "From where he started and his makeup and the way he thought about the game, to how he's playing now, he's come light years.

"Without question, his decisions late were the difference in the game."

Josten scored 18 of his career-high 20 points in the second half, including 13 of the Panthers' final 15, to help them register their first win at Hilton Coliseum since 1997 and second in 16 tries as a Division I program.

It was the second straight season a former point guard of McDermott's had a career night. Last year, Brooks McKowen exploded for 27 points. This time, it was Josten, who started his career as a preferred walk-on and played spot minutes under McDermott as a redshirt freshman and sophomore.

"Jared has got as much pride as anyone I've ever coached," UNI head coach Ben Jacobson said. "He's got a huge heart."

It was Jacobson's top two seniors - Josten and Eric Coleman - who stepped to the forefront.

Iowa State (2-3) cut UNI's lead to 46-45 with 4 minutes, 51 seconds remaining, but Josten tallied the next 11 points for the Panthers to spark a game-ending 16-3 flurry.

In addition to his 20 points and six rebounds, Josten was 9-for-9 at the free-throw line and had no turnovers in 34 minutes.

"At the end of the game, he took control of the team, and that's what you need out of your senior leader, especially your point guard," Coleman said. "He's supposed to run your team, be your court general and Jared did that."

Coleman, who had no points and two rebounds in a loss at South Dakota State, had 10 points and 14 rebounds. It was his fifth double-double in seven career games against Iowa State and Iowa.

In the final 7:45, Coleman, who started for the first time this season, snared nine rebounds and blocked two shots.

"For the second game in a row, we were just taken over by a team's seniors," said McDermott, whose squad has dropped three straight. "Eric Coleman and Jared Josten down the stretch made every decision that was made on that team. Their program is at a place where they can do that. We're not there yet."

Sophomore Wesley Johnson, who missed the first four games with a bruised bone in his foot, had 18 points in 35 minutes for ISU, but 6-foot-11 Jiri Hubalek and 6-10 heralded freshman Craig Brackins were plagued with foul trouble.

Hubalek picked up his fourth foul with 5:53 left, while Brackins played just 5 minutes in the first half because of two fouls. Brackins, averaging a team-best 14.8 points per game, never was able to get on track and finished 1-for-9 from the field with a season-worst two points.

"The (fouls) sent him into a tailspin the whole night that we really couldn't get him out of," McDermott said.

UNI's offense was in a tailspin at times, too. The Panthers went 7-plus minutes without a point to start the second half, helping the Cyclones surge to their biggest advantage, 38-31.

Unlike Friday at SDSU, UNI (5-1) didn't wilt.

Josten drained a jumper to end the drought, followed minutes later with a lay-in that resulted in a 3-point play.

"I just knew I had to keep being aggressive," said Josten, who took a season-high 15 shots. "In the first half, I had good looks, but they just weren't falling for me."

Josten wasn't the only one off the mark.

The Panthers, 0-for-9 from beyond the arc during the first 32 minutes, struck for three straight in a 4-minute stretch, including Kerwin Dunham's banked 3 to tie the game at 41 and Josten's banked trey to increase the margin to six.

"When (Josten) hit that shot, we put our heads down," ISU forward Rahshon Clark said.

Sandwiched in between Dunham and Josten was a 3 from Travis Brown, who had misfired on 18 of his last 21 attempts from beyond the arc and four straight. Brown's shot gave UNI the lead for good at the 5:16 mark, 46-43.

"We'll take whatever we can get," Josten said. "Those were big buckets for us. It doesn't matter how they go in."

ISU, which started the second half on a 12-0 run, made only one field goal in the last 4:49.

"We just lost sight of what our game plan was," said Clark, who had 10 points and four blocked shots. "We just didn't close out the game the way we started it off."

The Cyclones, held to a season low in points, shot 32.8 percent for the game, including 1-of-10 from the arc in the second half.

"Our shots stopped falling, and we were impatient and careless with the ball," Johnson said. "Northern Iowa out-toughed us."

Contact Matt Coss at (319) 291-1468 or matt.coss@wcfcourier.com

N. Iowa Mn FG-A FT-A Rb As PF TP

Josten 34 5-15 9-9 6 0 1 20

Coleman 28 4-9 2-3 14 2 1 10

Brown 31 2-9 0-0 1 2 2 5

Dunham 28 3-5 2-2 2 2 4 9

Koch 28 2-4 1-2 6 0 0 5

Viet 12 0-1 0-0 0 0 2 0

Montgomery 15 0-0 0-0 0 1 2 0

O'Rear 11 3-5 0-0 6 1 1 6

Eglseder 13 3-4 0-0 4 1 2 6

Team 4

Totals 200 22-52 14-16 43 9 15 61

ISU Mn FG-A FT-A Rb As PF TP

Clark 36 5-8 0-2 6 1 2 10

Brackins 22 1-9 0-0 6 1 4 2

Petersen 29 0-2 2-2 1 5 1 2

Hubalek 24 4-11 2-2 7 0 5 10

WJohnson 35 7-14 0-0 2 1 3 18

Garrett 18 2-7 1-2 0 1 1 6

Thompson 10 0-3 0-0 2 0 2 0

Haluska 10 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0

CJohnson 10 0-3 0-0 4 0 2 0

Vette 6 0-0 0-1 0 0 0 0

Lee 0+ 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Team 3

Totals 200 19-58 5-9 31 9 20 48

Northern Iowa 31 30 - 61

Iowa State 26 22 - 48

3-point goals - UNI 3-12 (Brown 1-5, Josten 1-4, Dunham 1-2, O'Rear 0-1); ISU 5-18 (W. Johnson 4-8, Garrett 1-3, Petersen 0-2, Brackins 0-2, C. Johnson 0-2, Haluska 0-1). Turnovers - UNI 10 (Coleman 3, Montgomery 2); ISU 7 (W. Johnson 3). Steals - UNI 0; ISU 4; Blocks - UNI 5 (Coleman 3); ISU 7 (Clark 4).

Officials - Ted Hillary, John Higgins, David Hall. Att. - 14,376.

RUNOUTS

- Score: UNI 61, Iowa State 48

- Records: Panthers 5-1; Cyclones 2-3

- Leaders of the pack: The Panthers' Jared Josten had 20 points, 6 rebounds, 0 turnovers in 34 minutes, and Eric Coleman had 10 points, 14 rebounds; the Cyclones' Wesley Johnson scored 18 points.

- Off the bench: UNI's Lucas O'Rear tallied 6 points, 6 rebounds in 11 minutes, and the Cyclones' Diante Garrett had 6 points in 18 minutes.

- Game changer: Josten scored 18 of his career-high 20 in the second half, including 11 straight.

- Next up: UNI returns home to play Loyola-Chicago at 7:05 p.m. Saturday. ISU travels to Oregon State for a 10 p.m. tip Friday.