For the second time this season, ISU junior point guard Tim Barnes has been named Big 12 Rookie of the Week. He scored a career-high 23 points Saturday in a 64-61 victory over Kansas State.

“People feed off him; he gets people going,” forward Jackson Vroman said Saturday. “Once he started to go, everyone fed off that and it really helped us.”

Barnes also scored seven points and dished out seven assists in Iowa State’s loss at Texas A&M Wednesday. The honor is given by a panel of select media covering Big 12 basketball.

“Really, the [Feb. 16] Kansas game was a breakout game for him,” teammate Jake Sullivan said after Saturday’s win. “He played great there, he played great down at Texas A&M and then today, he really got going.”

Barnes’ effort on Saturday helped end Iowa State’s four-game losing streak, and gave the Cyclones their third conference victory. He scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half and tied a career high draining five three-pointers, including three of them during a 15-0 run.

“It was just falling,” Barnes said of his shot Saturday. “Everything was feeling good and my teammates had a lot of confidence in me. They were actually looking for me and the shots just kept going in. It was a great feeling to get a win.”

After starting the regular season with solid play, head coach Larry Eustachy said Barnes may have hit a wall when the Big 12 season started.

“Tim has really picked it up,” Eustachy said. “What happened to Tim was he hooked three big-time guards in his first three [conference] games, if you look at it. It started with the guards at Kansas then [Texas’] T.J. Ford. He was kind of shell-shocked and I thought he lost confidence. Now, he’s gained some confidence.”

For the week, Barnes averaged 15 points and five assists while playing 75 of the team’s 80 minutes in the two games. He is fifth in the Big 12 in assists at 5.17 per game.

“My teammates were behind me 100 percent,” Barnes said of his early season struggles. “Coaches and people at Iowa State just kept telling me I belong in the Big 12, and now it’s kind of sinking in and I’m starting to play a lot better.”