KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Cyclones endured a handful of bricks from behind the arc in their previous eight games, while watching a flurry of swishes from opponents. On Thursday, Iowa State flipped the script.

Iowa State fended off Baylor’s attempt at a third win against the Cyclones with an 83-66 win.

“We played together; we played defense for sure,” said senior guard Marial Shayok. “We rebounded way better. We shared the ball, and it translated into a big win.”

The Cyclones capitalized off a strong 38-29 halftime advantage by continuing their hot shooting.

After Baylor’s Jared Butler maneuvered through the lane for a layup, freshman Tyrese Haliburton set up shop behind the arc and drilled a 3-pointer.

Baylor’s Makai Mason responded with his own 3-pointer. Haliburton struck for another 3-pointer on the next trip down the court.

Following the Haliburton 3-point run, Iowa State went on a 6-0 run, triggering a Scott Drew timeout after the first two buckets.

“The two that I thought were big was when they came out of the gates early in the second half and they scored, he answered both those [with] threes,” Prohm said. “Those may have been two of the biggest shots of the whole game because it weathered off their run.”

Haliburton shined to start the second half, but he followed the lead of fellow freshman guard Talen Horton-Tucker.

Horton-Tucker fired off 10 shots in the opening half, tallying 16 points. The freshman connected on a pair of two-point shots, but he hurt the Bears from behind the arc.

Taking seven 3-point attempts in the half, Horton-Tucker sunk four of them. The freshman jump-started the 3-point shooting, but the Cyclones as a team thrived overall.

“Big-time players show up in big-time games,” Haliburton said about Horton-Tucker. “That’s what he does. We know what he can do.

“We call him the microwave. He gets hot really quick.”

Iowa State shot 52 percent from 3-point range, hitting 13-of-25. The last time the Cyclones hit about the 50 percent threshold came in their win at Kansas State, shooting over 58 percent.

In the six losses Iowa State suffered near the end of the season, teams combined to shoot 64-of-146 from three at a clip of 43.8 percent. Baylor finished with a 9-for-26 game from 3-point land (36 percent) with a couple of those makes coming in garbage time. In one of Iowa State’s signature wins — a 78-64 win against Kansas State — the Wildcats hit 5-of-19 (26.3 percent).

“This was our most complete game, obviously, since Kansas State,” Prohm said. 

Prohm emphasized the importance of dribble penetration, offensive rebounding and perimeter defense entering the Big 12 Tournament.

Despite a strong first half and start of the second half, the shooting clinic managed not to flame out.

With under five minutes left and the game out of reach, Baylor failed to connect on a pair of 3-pointers over the span of a couple minutes.

With four of the starters on the bench and Haliburton leading the unit, the shot clock slimmed to two ticks with the game clock at about 1:50. Haliburton, near NBA range behind the 3-point line, heaved up a shot with a swish and a trip to the semifinals following.