All season long, the ISU men’s basketball team has lived and died with Mike Taylor.

When Taylor plays well, Iowa State is a team to be reckoned with. But when he struggles, the Cyclones’ fortunes go with him.

That was the case again in Iowa State’s 71-58 win over Baylor on Saturday.

Taylor was sharp from the beginning, scoring 21 points as Iowa State led almost the entire way.

Although Taylor has been the team’s leading scorer all season, he has also picked up his all-around game.

He dished out a career-high eight assists while committing only four turnovers, an aspect of the game that has plagued Taylor all season.

“We’re asking him to do so much and he’s not a point guard, but we’re asking him to play there,” ISU coach Greg McDermott said. “We only have one guy who can create and that’s Mike Taylor. And when you ask him to create, he’s going to make some mistakes.

“He’s making great strides and I’d rather pay attention to the eight assists than the four turnovers.”

Two of his three-point attempts found the bottom of the net, giving the junior guard a basket from behind the three-point line in 18 straight games and in 20 of Iowa State’s 21 games this season.

Although Taylor has – and will still be expected to – shouldered much of the offensive load, Iowa State’s win Saturday coincides with improved offensive play from other Cyclones.

In a performance that has almost become routine, Wesley Johnson scored 14 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.

Most important to the ISU cause, however, was Jiri Hubalek’s performance against the Bears, which pulled him out of a personal slump that saw the Cyclone big man go just 4-of-12 from the field in his last two games.

Poor showings in practice translated to poor play in games, McDermott said. But somewhere between Iowa State’s loss to Texas A&M on Wednesday and Saturday’s game, Hubalek found his groove again.

“He hasn’t practiced well, and as a result, he hasn’t played well, and I have been on him the last couple days just to make the simple plays,” McDermott said. “He showed some of the tenacity and toughness he showed when we played against Nebraska and their big kid [Aleks Maric].”

Hubalek had a double-double in all three of Iowa State’s conference wins, and just one in its five losses.

Wrapped in an intense game early, Hubalek fed off the Bears’ physical play, channeling that into his impressive showing.

“I think he got mad after he got a couple blows in the mouth,” Johnson said. “He got mad and started executing and scoring.

“He took it out on them [Baylor]. He saw the ref wasn’t calling nothing and he had to do it some other way; he couldn’t hit them back. He just started scoring. That’s one of the reasons he was more aggressive tonight.”

When it was all said and done, Hubalek tied a season high of 19 points set against South Dakota State. He also had nine rebounds and a blocked shot, using the absence of Baylor big man Mamadou Diene and early foul trouble to back-up Josh Lomers to his advantage.

“He hasn’t been establishing himself down low the last couple games,” Taylor said. “He said he was ready tonight.

“That was our objective, to get the ball down there, get him going early and then that would open everything up on the perimeter.”