Hoops woes continue

FINAL SCORE: Iowa State 85 â€“ Texas 77

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1^st Half: Iowa State 35 â€“ Texas 31‘”

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[*]Despite Myles Turnerâ€™s recent success, he started the game on the bench. Barnes has been favoring a 3-guard lineup and stuck with it today (Taylor, Yancy, Holland, Holmes, and Ridley start). Turner and Javan Felix both subbed in after only three minutes.

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[*]At the under 16:00 timeout, Texas already had 8 rebounds and 2 blocks, but their 4 turnovers killed any attempt at finding a rhythm on offense.

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[*]Iowa State is 4 of their first 5 from beyond the arc. Thatâ€™s a troubling trend for Texas, even though the Horns are 2-5 from 3-point range.

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[*]27 games into the season and Myles Turner is still settling for too many jump shots. Especially against a smaller team like ISU, Turner needs to live in the paint.

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[*]At the under 4:00 mark, Texas is shooting 50% from the floor, including 57% from behind the 3-point line. Hot shooting, 6 assists, and a 17-12 edge on the boards only has Texas up by 2?

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[*]Consecutive Texas turnovers to end the half help propel Iowa State to a 4-point halftime lead.

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2^nd Half: Iowa State 50 â€“ Texas 46‘”

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[*]The Cyclones are scoring easy buckets on the interior to open the 2^nd half. Texas seems so focused on guarding the perimeter that theyâ€™re allowing ISU to catch entry passes at the basket.

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[*]27 minutes into the game and Jonathon Holmes has zero points, and has only attempted two shots. Thatâ€™s not his game, nor is it a winning recipe for Texas. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

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[*]In the first 10 minutes of the half, the Horns have cut back on the turnovers, but havenâ€™t been able to sustain the scoring from the first half. ISU leads by 8 at the 7:30 mark and itâ€™s been a 5-8 point lead for most of the half.

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[*]Kendal Yancy has 19 points and is 4-5 from beyond the arc at the 6:00 mark. Simply put, Yancy is keeping Texas in the game almost single-handedly.

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[*]The Cyclones are staked to a 12-point lead (67-55) with 4:13 to play, and there are no trends in the game that suggest Texas can come back to win. Regardless of that, slowing ISU down by fouling them and Kendal Yancyâ€™s stroke kept Texas within striking distance â€“ they pulled within 2 scores.

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Top takeaways

1. Throughout preseason we heard from Rick Barnes and Isaiah Taylor about how much Taylor worked on his jump shot in the offseason. Itâ€™s the end of February and Taylor still doesnâ€™t even try to stretch the defense by taking shots. No questioning the value of his dribble penetration, but itâ€™s still his only offense.

2. Despite a solid offensive outing, Texas had no answer defensively for Iowa State. The tape on the Cyclones shows exactly the same thing they did today, but the Horns looked unprepared.

The stat story‘”

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[*]12 Texas turnovers in the first half erased all positive statâ€™s (and there were several).

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[*]ISU was 6-12 from 3-point range in the first half, and 6-9 in the second half â€“ 57% for the game.

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[*]ISU outscored Texas in benchscoring, 33-13.

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[*]Kendal Yancy finished with 29 points, including 6-9 three point attempts.

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[*]The Cyclones finished with 5 players in double figures scored, with a sixth at 9 points.

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Looking ahead

The Horns travel to Morgantown on Tuesday to play West Virginia. After that, itâ€™s a road trip to Lawrence to face the Jayhawks. Nobody said the Big 12 was going to be easy â€“ needing every win they can muster, Texas has a treacherous stretch.