Forgive Wayne Morgan if he was a little concerned.

The ISU men’s basketball coach could only watch as Curtis Stinson leapt for a rebound, drew contact and came down holding his hand.

A mere four minutes had run off the clock and Iowa State was already trailing Oklahoma State by eight.

The guard took a seat on the Cyclone bench while trainers looked at his right ring finger, the same hand he has injured in both of the last two seasons.

“It really did scare me,” Morgan said. “If he breaks his hand again, we’re ducks in the water on the first day of hunting.”

The guard just smiled after the game when told of his coach’s concerns.

“I don’t know why,” Stinson said. “He knew I was going to go back out there. I wasn’t going to stay out the game. He knew that.”

Minutes later Stinson returned to the game, just in time to help the Cyclones close the half with a 17-2 run, opening up a seven-point halftime lead.

Stinson ended Iowa State’s 68-52 victory over Oklahoma State with 18 points, just one shy of his season average. Those 19.6 points per game place him third on the Big 12 scoring charts this year.

Although an injury to Stinson would have crippled Iowa State’s offense, it would have severley hampered the Cyclones’ defense, as well.

Stinson, who had two of Iowa State’s 10 steals against the Cowboys, is second in the Big 12 in takeaways.

“We just got it done,” Stinson said. “The defensive intensity is there now. Guys are knowing where they’re supposed to be. We’re playing together.”

The Cyclones held Oklahoma State to just 38 percent from the field in the second half and forced 24 turnovers. Those turnovers turned into 26 points for Iowa State.

“We’re getting out running and getting steals like we normally do as Cyclones,” Stinson said. “That’s what we do, get steals and get easy baskets.”

The team is also playing more man-to-man defense, as opposed to the 2-3 zone they had employed for much of the season.

“We really like it,” Blalock said of the new defensive scheme. “We figure we can guard anybody because our bigs were playing really good defense.

As long as they’re active, the guards are going to stay active. We can guard anybody instead of just going 2-3 the whole way.”

Although Iowa State’s defense did improve against the Cowboys, it may well be a case of too little, too late.

Wins in the Cyclones final three games would put the team at 8-8 in the conference. No Big 12 team has ever earned an at-large NCAA tournament bid with a .500 mark in league play.

Stinson said the team is trying to put postseason talk and conjecture out of their minds.

“All we have to do is win games,” Stinson said. “We just have to take it one game at a time and win. Everything else will happen on its own. We just have to win games. NCAA talk – stuff like that – is out the door now. We just have to play basketball and win as many games as we can.

“We’re not saying we’re throwing it away like we don’t care. We’re just not thinking about it.”

Iowa State’s next game is against the last-place team in the Big 12. Baylor sports just a 2-11 overall record this season. The Bears were barred from playing non-conference games after a scandal involving the cover-up of the murder of one of their players.

Gametime is set for 12:45 p.m. Saturday in Waco, Texas.

A two-game winning streak is on the line for the Cyclones, as well as possible momentum for the postseason.

“I think our team is getting better,” Morgan said. “It probably happened later then we would have liked, but a lot of guys are figuring out what we’re trying to do and what we have to do.”