Iowa State men’s basketball doomed by first-half drought against No. 15 Texas

AMES - Starting point guard Rasir Bolton was out on Tuesday night for Iowa State's game against Texas.

Bolton sprained his ankle in the Cyclones' game last Saturday against TCU.

His absence was apparent and noticeable from the beginning Tuesday at Hilton Coliseum. Without their leading scorer and point guard, the Cyclones looked out of sorts on offense for much of the first half.

Iowa State wasn't able to rebound from that early discombobulation and lost to No. 15 Texas, 81-67

The Cyclones had 14 first-half turnovers and struggled to find any reliable offense, connecting on just 12-of-29 shots from the field.

'Rasir is out, so Tyler (Harris) had to move to point and Jaden (Walker) has to play it some,” Iowa State Coach Steve Prohm said. 'I thought Jaden did some good things but the biggest thing with point guard play is turnovers. Those two had (a combined) five assists to eight turnovers - that needs to be the other way around and then some. We need to be in that two-to-one assist to turnover ratio.

'Obviously it was new for them so we have to continue to work in decision making and breaking pressure.”

Halfway through the first half, Iowa State had a stretch where it had eight turnovers in 6:49 of game time.

In that same stretch, when the Cyclones managed to not turn the ball over, they were still unable to make a field goal or get to the free throw line, which led to a 17-0 Texas run from 12:49 to 9:55. That bad stretch of basketball essentially put the game out of reach for the Cyclones.

'We didn't do a good job of handling their pressure and that five-to-six-minute stretch was the difference in the game,” Prohm said. 'That's the bottom line. We were able to get the game back to a manageable deficit with a good second half but that run was the difference in the game.”

Iowa State cleaned up its turnover issues in the second half and did its best to mount a comeback but it dug itself too deep a hole.

The Cyclones (2-19, 0-16 Big 12) only had three turnovers in the second half and shot 14-of-33 from the field.

Jaden Coleman-Lands led the Cyclones in scoring with 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting. George Conditt had a season-high 11 points to go along with five rebounds and a block.

Kai Jones led Texas (15-7, 9-6) with 17 points off the bench.

Iowa State cut the Texas lead to eight points with 6:55 left but the Longhorns kept the Cyclones at arm's length.

'Close is unacceptable,” Prohm said. 'We all know that. I've been here six years and I know the history of this program as good as anybody. This program has been a part of great NCAA tournament runs, we have great guys playing in the NBA right now, we have guys who are successful all over the world right now, whether it's playing professionally or in business or in coaching. It's unacceptable.

'We can talk about being close and getting better but the bottom line is this program is expected to be in the NCAA tournament, it's expected to go to Kansas City next weekend and make a great run, it's expected to be a tradition-rich program with great people and personnel. No question the losing is unacceptable. I understand that more than anybody.”

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