IOWA CITY – After Friday night’s 77-59 loss at Iowa, the ISU men’s basketball team appears to have found a little bit of consistency – just not in the areas it would like.

The Cyclones committed a whopping 26 turnovers against the Hawkeyes, the fourth time in nine games this season that Iowa State has committed at least 15 turnovers and the second time the team has committed at least 20.

“[Iowa] played good defense and pressured us out of some things that we wanted to do,” said ISU head coach Greg McDermott. “Sometimes I felt that we could’ve made a better pass, but we just don’t have that experience or consistency yet.”

The 26 turnovers led to 31 Hawkeye points, compared to just 10 Cyclone points off Iowa’s 12 turnovers.

“Anytime you allow your opponent to score almost half their points off turnovers, your chances of winning are slim to none,” McDermott said. “We have to take better care of the ball, it’s as simple as that.”

The loss to Iowa marked the first time Iowa State has fallen to all three intrastate rivals in the same season since 1997, and McDermott said this was definitely the worst-played game by Iowa State during its three-game swoon.

The biggest problem, turnover-wise, for the Cyclones was the production from the point guard position.

Mike Taylor, Corey McIntosh and Dodie Dunson all ran the point at times against Iowa and combined for just seven assists to 13 turnovers.

“Our point guard play in general . that’s an issue for us,” McDermott said. “But these kids play hard. They compete. Sometimes we let our intensity get in the way of our intelligence, and I think it’s because we’re trying so hard to do the right thing that we don’t stop to think the game through.”

Another major problem area for the Cyclones has been the inability to both score in the paint and keep other teams from racking up points in close to the basket.

Iowa State was outscored 44-20 in the paint by Iowa, and in the Cyclones’ past three games against Iowa, Drake and UNI, they have been outscored 118-68.

Iowa was able to take advantage of slow defensive rotations by the Cyclones and score points in the lane with penetration by guards Adam Haluska, Tyler Smith and Tony Freeman, who scored 18, 16 and 11 points respectively.

Dunson knew the Cyclone defense was a major problem area after the game, but said he was confident Iowa State could get things fixed.

“Defensively we didn’t get after it tonight,” Dunson said. “I’m confident we can get things turned around . we have to get after it a lot harder next time out.”

Until that happens, McDermott said, they will have to continue to be patient and wait for someone to step up.

“We need someone to step forward and want to be that inside presence for us,” McDermott said. “Jiri [Hubalek] has shown signs of that, but he’s not consistent enough yet, and we don’t look to get the ball in there consistently enough. Old habits are hard to break, and until that happens, we just have to be patient.”