For about 32 minutes of last Saturday’s game against No. 9 Kansas State, the Cyclones showed they are capable of playing with the top teams in the Big 12 conference. The other seven minutes, however, were a different story. Iowa State saw the Wildcats go on a 17-2 run to put the game just out of reach.

Iowa State is back at the drawing board this week, trying to find a way to end its two-game losing skid.

“We know we had some bad couple of minutes in that game, so we’re correcting it on the practice court, staying locked in the whole practice,” said forward Craig Brackins. “We know what we have to do. We’re now just trying to put it together.”

The Cyclones will need to put things together quickly as they face yet another conference foe, Missouri, on Wednesday night in Columbia.

At 5-3 in the Big 12, the fleet-footed Tigers (17-6 overall) have positioned themselves for a run at the conference’s No. 2 spot — the nation’s top team, Kansas, is well in command of first place.

Led by a lot of guards, Missouri, who is tied with Texas for third in the Big 12, has motored its way to several key wins in conference play, including a victory over second place Kansas State.

An average of 54.4 of the Tigers’ 81.3 points per game — third best scoring average in the Big 12 — are contributed by Missouri’s six main guards.

“They have a lot of guards on their team who can get up and down the court and get up under the ball,” said guard Diante Garrett.

Missouri’s guard play is headed up by the sophomore duo of Kim English and Marcus Denmon — averaging 15.1 and 11.3 ppg — who contribute heavily to the Tigers’ average of 8.5 3-pointers per game.

“Missouri presents some challenges that we haven’t seen yet this year,” said coach Greg McDermott. “They are just a very capable 3-point shooting team, with a number of guys. Not often do you have, I think, seven guys who essentially have made one 3-point shot per game in conference play. That can be difficult to guard.”

But apart from their potent offense, what separates the Tigers from other teams in the conference is their rapid and in-your-face defense.

“They are everywhere,” Garrett said. “They are like a pack of dogs, trapping everywhere. You think a pass is there, but it is taken away in a split of a second, so we’ve been working on that in practice.”

The pesky Tigers rank No. 1 in the NCAA in steals per game (12.0) and are second only to Houston in turnover margin (7.6).

“It is still their defense that I think separates them with their ability to turn you over,” McDermott said. “That is where we have to zero in on and make sure that we don’t make those mistakes. I felt like last year we handled the press OK, but our turnovers came in the quarter court.”

Instead of trying to keep pace with the Tigers, the Cyclones will attempt to slow Missouri’s tempo.

“I think if you stay calm with Missouri that is your best bet, instead of trying to speed yourself up to their game, because I don’t think anyone is as fast up and down as Missouri,” Brackins said. “If you stay calm and get yourself together and just run your stuff, I think you can be successful.”

After a promising start to the conference season — staying with then No. 2 Texas and a win at Nebraska — Iowa State has lost five of its last six games. However, as the Cyclones showed Saturday, with their late-game comeback against the Wildcats, Iowa State is continuing to work to improve where it struggles.

“There were a bunch of guys in the gym shooting yesterday, getting workouts in on their off day, which is always a positive sign,” McDermott said Monday. “Practice today was enthusiastic. They were focused.”

Focus will be needed Wednesday in order for the Cyclones to prevent the momentary collapses that have plagued the team all season.

“We showed [Saturday] that we can play hard,” Brackins said. “We just need to play hard for all 40 — not 31 or 32 — minutes.”