Iowa State feared the play of the Texas big men would spell doom for the Cyclones on Monday night, but it was the sharpshooting of Kenton Paulino that did in Iowa State.

Paulino notched career-highs in three-pointers and points with 6 and 20, respectively, on the way to a 78-58 Longhorn victory.

“They were just so focused on the inside play I got a lot of open looks,” Paulino said. “Coach said I have to shoot the ball if I got the looks.”

Both teams came out of the gate firing and combined for 25 3-point attempts in the first half. Texas went 6-of-12 behind the arc and the Cyclones kept pace with a 5-of-13 effort.

Iowa State hung around while the Longhorns rode a 15-point first half from Paulino to a 34-29 advantage at the break.

Ultimately, however, a 49 percent shooting effort from the Texas was too much for Iowa State.

“You have to pick your poison – inside or outside,” said ISU coach Wayne Morgan. “If you want to stop the three big guys up front, then you have to give up shots from the outside and hope they miss them.”

Although the Cyclones didn’t have the worst night from the field as a team, key contributors such as Curtis Stinson never got going.

Stinson came into the game averaging over 24 points-per-game in nationally televised games like Monday night’s, but was held to just two points in the first half on just 1-of-3 shooting thanks to some stingy defense by Texas guard Daniel Gibson.

“Curtis is a hard guy to defend because he can hurt you in so many ways,” said Texas coach Rick Barnes. “I thought the biggest change people would see in Daniel [Gibson] would be how good of a defensive player he could be, and he showed that.”

Stinson finished with just seven points and a 3-for-10 night from the floor.

Iowa State had just two players reach double figures on the night. Rahshon Clark led the way with 18 points, including four triples, and Will Blalock added 17 points.

With only six Cyclones making field goals and four Longhorns scoring double figures, it didn’t take much to knock out the Cyclones in the second half.

Iowa State compounded problems by struggling to rebound the basketball as the game wore on. The Cyclones out-rebounded Texas 20-18 in the first half, but the Longhorns reversed the fortunes in the second half, out-rebounding ISU 23-8 for a final advantage of 41-28.

If that weren’t enough, Iowa State helped out the Longhorns by committing 13 fouls in the second half compared to Texas’ six.

The Longhorns, who shot just two free throws in the entire first half, shot 21 free throws in the second half and finished 15-23 from the charity stripe.

Iowa State was 5-of-6 from the line.

The Cyclones fell to 11-4 on the year and 1-1 in the Big 12 conference.

“We lost,” Morgan said.

“We had a significant loss and there’s nothing positive to draw from it. The only thing we can do is look at the film and look at the things we did wrong and correct it.”

The Cyclones see action next Saturday at Texas Tech. Tipoff is set for 11 a.m.