A Feb. 21, 2001, win at Kansas State was the last time the ISU men’s basketball team walked off a road court victorious against a Big 12 opponent. Nearly three years and 19 straight losses later, Iowa State is still looking for a conference road win.

“I think we’ve got to be mentally tougher, physically tougher to go into someone else’s home and beat them. It’s just as simple as that,” ISU head coach Wayne Morgan said Monday in the weekly Big 12 teleconference.

Iowa State (11-4, 2-2 Big 12) was hoping to get the monkey off its back when it traveled to Waco, Texas, to play a troubled Baylor program that had yet to win a conference game. Costly turnovers and poor shooting sealed the Cyclones’ fate as the Bears (6-11, 1-3) held off a late ISU rally for a 63-59 victory.

Iowa State’s offensive woes were especially felt behind the 3-point arc, where the Cyclones shot only 7.1 percent. Senior guard Jake Sullivan tallied 11 points on 2-of-12 shooting.

ISU center Jared Homan sat out the game with a sprained ankle, and Baylor capitalized down low. ISU big men Jackson Vroman and Damion Staple combined for 19 points and 14 rebounds.

“Everybody we play shadows Jake,” Morgan said. “I don’t think they doubled Jackson Vroman in particular. I think if you noticed when Damion Staple caught the ball, they were in a configuration where they came down and helped.”

The Cyclone bench could only muster nine points against the Bears after huge contributions against Iowa in Wednesday’s 84-76 victory.

“We’re hopeful that everybody who goes in can help us with scoring,” Morgan said. “We had a bad offensive night at Baylor. Before the year is over, we’ll have some more offensive bad nights; we’ll also have some good ones.”

Morgan said Iowa State had an opportunity to win at the end of the Baylor game, but poor defense and rebounding hampered the Cyclone attack.

“I think the key for us is you’re going to have bad offensive nights, but you still need to play good enough defense to keep you in the game with a chance to win,” Morgan said.

“We had a chance to win at the end of that game, but I just thought in particular our rebounding just was not good enough to give us a chance.”

Next up for Iowa State is a matchup at home against Texas A&M Wednesday. The Cyclones have not lost at home this season but are winless outside the state of Iowa. Iowa State’s lone road win came at Drake in December.

“I think we have tremendous fans, no question, at Hilton Coliseum,” Morgan said. “Our fans create an atmosphere where it’s difficult for other teams to play. I think we have a great homecourt advantage.”