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Love missed nine of his first 10 3-point shots during UA's 86-75 overtime win over No. 3 Iowa State before throwing in a 60-foot buzzer beater to send the game into overtime in a 71-71 tie and then two more 3s to sew it up in overtime.

"Best moment of my life," Love said.

"Holy s--," UA coach Tommy Lloyd said.

The moment would have brought McKale Center fans to their feet, but they were already there, standing up for the entire tense late-night ESPN affair.

Predictably, Love's bomb gave the Wildcats momentum enough to easily put the Cyclones away in overtime after what had been a physical, defensive-minded game that was mostly played within a possession or two throughout.

Iowa State scored first in overtime and also tied the game at 75 with 2:36 left. But Love hit two 3s over the next minute and freshman Carter Bryant followed with another 3 to all but put the game away by giving UA an 84-75 lead with 1:09 left.

"The bomb and those two in overtime? Goodness," Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger said of Love's heroics. "I mean, after he hits the three-quarter court shot, I'm sure he felt great to make the other ones that presented in overtime."

Yes, he did.

"You hit a shot like that, you got to win in overtime," Love said. "There's no way we losing."

Love said he felt actually confident throughout the game — "every shot I felt was going in," he said — and maybe that helped at the end of regulation. Because he didn't have time to think about building confidence or anything else, for that matter.

Only 2.2 seconds were on the clock in regulation when Anthony Dell'Orso fired an inbounds pass up the left side of the court. Love picked it up on the three-point line, took two dribbles and then launched his shot well in front of the halfcourt line.

The Wildcats were forced into that sort of desperation shot after Jaden Bradley missed a 3-pointer with 14 seconds left, leaving UA trailing 71-68. Henri Veesaar pulled down the rebound and hit the first of two free throws to cut ISU's lead to two points.

Veesaar then intentionally missed the second free throw, but it bounced hard into the hands of ISU’s Joshua Jefferson. However, Jefferson missed the first of two ensuing free throws after he was fouled, and his make on the second shot allowed UA to set up its final play with 2.2 seconds left, trailing by three points.

"You're just trying to hang in there and give yourself a chance," Lloyd said. "A desperation 3 is probably not the chance you're trying to give yourself. But it made for great theater."

While UA led 34-30 at halftime and by up to five in the second half, the final minutes were more about frustration than success for the Wildcats until Love's shot.

As the game entered the final minute of regulation with Iowa State ahead 68-65, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ worked the ball on one possession to Love, who couldn’t find an opening along the baseline before KJ Lewis took the ball, struggled, but eventually picked up a foul and hit both ensuing free throws with 29 seconds left.

Still leading 68-67 at that point, the Cyclones called a timeout before Lewis fouled ISU guard Curtis Jones, who made both ends of a one-and-one with 20.7 seconds left to put Iowa State back up by three, 71-68.

Love finished with 22 points on 8-for-22 shooting, while center Tobe Awaka had 17 points and 12 rebounds, collecting four of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥'s critical 13 offensive rebounds. 

The Wildcats, who shot 43.9% from the field, made up for some of their misses by scoring 16 second-chance points off those offensive rebounds.

"Tobe — the dude's a beast," Lloyd said. "Played his ass off tonight. ... He's playing clean, and he's doing great. He was amazing on the glass today. That really allowed us kind of to make some runs early in that game to kind of give us a little bit of separation so we could absorb a few runs later."

Lloyd had similar praise for Lewis, who finished with 14 points, eight rebounds and six assists while becoming the main point of attack for an ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ defense that generally matched the aggressive Cyclones.

"KJ, that dude is a bad boy defensively," Lloyd said. "He's everywhere. Everywhere. I mean, relentless."

Mired in a defensive struggle early, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ took a 34-30 halftime lead after going on a 16-0 run late in the first half, then played Iowa State closely throughout the second half.

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ fell into a four-point deficit five minutes into the second half while Iowa State hit nine of its first 11 field goals over the first 12 minutes, taking four-point leads three times before the Wildcats pulled within a possession most of the rest of the game.

Awaka put back two straight offensive rebounds to give the Wildcats a 59-55 lead with 8:04 left, though Iowa State later tied it again at 60 with 5:23 when Joshua Jefferson scored inside and converted an and-one on a foul from Awaka.

The Wildcats took a 65-62 lead with 3:46 left when Love made his first of eight 3-point attempts, but Iowa State’s Keshon Gilbert answered quickly, putting in his own 3-pointer with 3:09 left. Then, after Love missed another 3, Gilbert drove in for a layup to give Iowa State a 68-65 lead with 2:21 left.

But ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ couldn’t cut into the lead over the next minute, when Bradley had a layup blocked and Love missed a 3-pointer, leaving the Cyclones ahead until the final seconds.

At the start of the game, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ missed its first nine 3-point shots but Bryant hit two and Jaden Bradley another during the Wildcats’ furious late first-half rally. The Wildcats wound up shooting 41.9% overall before halftime while making 3 of 14 3-pointers, and kept the Cyclones to just 35.5% shooting.

Iowa State led by no more than six points through the first 14 minutes while UA tied it at 16 and 18. But the Cyclones scored seven straight to take a 25-18 lead with 5:22 left, prompting UA to call a timeout.

It paid off. The Wildcats had missed their first nine 3-point shots at that point, but Bradley hit what was the team's 10th attempt with 4:29 left and Iowa State's Tamin Lipsey picked up a flopping technical foul, allowing UA to keep going. The Wildcats eventually compiled a 16-0 run to take a 34-25 lead after Bryant hit two 3-pointers, Love threw down a breakaway dunk and Bradley tipped a basket in.

Iowa State scored five points over the final 43 seconds of the half to cut the Wildcats’ lead to just four points, including a 3-pointer from Lipsey with two seconds left. But Lipsey's shot couldn't match the bomb Love hit at the end of regulation, or what followed after.

With a large team of security staffers and police preventing students from racing on the court afterward, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ left McKale at 14-6 overall and 8-1 in the Big 12 heading into away games at ASU on Saturday and at BYU on Feb. 4.

Third-ranked Iowa State dropped to 17-3 and 7-2, though the Cyclones will get a chance to host ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ on March 1 in Ames, Iowa.

"Rest assured, they got something waiting for us when we go to Ames," Lloyd said. "So we're going to enjoy this one tonight. It was a great moment for ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ basketball, and we're going to celebrate that. Our guys deserve it. Hasn't been an easy year, but we're trending in the right direction."