The phrase “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” doesn’t necessarily work for the ISU men’s basketball team.

For the Cyclones, they took several things away from their losses to No. 22 Cincinnati and No. 18 UNLV during the weekend.

Coach Fred Hoiberg’s team showed areas of success as well as lack thereof in what could be its toughest matchups in nonconference play. Now, Iowa State is faced with the tall task of putting all those positives together into one complete “package.”

“We’ve just got to take baby steps,” said Tyrus McGee, the team’s leading scorer. “Korie [Lucious], he’s been turning the ball over a little bit because he’s new to the system — it’s his first year here. But by the time Big 12 conference starts, we’ll be pretty packed.”

Against Cincinnati on Friday, Iowa State found success on the rebounding end, cleaning the glass for 46 rebounds. Melvin Ejim collected 10 rebounds, including five on the offensive end.

But the team had a tougher time in the turnover department and from the charity stripe, turning the ball over 18 times while shooting 12-of-21 from the line. The opportunities were there, but Hoiberg said his team just couldn’t put the two halves together.

“The first one, we didn’t get off to a great start because we turned the ball over too much,” Hoiberg said at his weekly news conference Monday. “Second half, we took care of the ball a little better, but then we couldn’t make a free throw. We just didn’t finish the end of that game when we had opportunities.”

Against UNLV on Saturday, it was a similar situation.

The Cyclones out-rebounded the Rebels on the offensive glass 24-14 for 22 second-chance points. On the downside, they couldn’t finish the easy ones that could have helped pull off the victory.

“We missed; we counted 10 wide-open layups right at the basket, and again you can’t do that against good teams and expect to win,” Hoiberg said.

Rebounding is one area of the game where the Cyclones have stayed consistent throughout the season thus far. Averaging 48 rebounds per game as opposed to the 34 by its opponents, rebounding has been an area Iowa State can count on.

Considering how the team rebounded against a pair of top-25 teams in Las Vegas, Will Clyburn said the goal from the get-go was to be consistent on the boards.

Clyburn posted a double-double against UNLV on Saturday, contributing 21 points and 15 rebounds for his best performance of the season. Everyone who played except freshman guard Naz Long recorded a rebound against the Rebels.

“Knowing that everybody on the team is tough and they’re going to go in there and try to attack the glass-rebounding is an important part of the game to get you extra possessions,” Clyburn said. “So just knowing the team is going to go in there and try to get you extra possessions is always good.”

In regards to the turnovers, Hoiberg said the team has been “trying to hit too many home runs.” Working on making better passes and basketball plays will help decrease the turnover margin.

Hoiberg stressed that more than anything, it’s a matter of compiling it all together for 40 minutes.

“Biggest thing we need to do is put a package together,” Hoiberg said. “We’ve got to take away those lapses right now, those five-, eight-minute stretches where we aren’t getting much. Once we do that, I’m confident that we can get things going in the right direction.”

Next up, BYU heads to Ames for on Saturday afternoon. Tipoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.