At first, Saturday’s game between Iowa State and Texas Christian (TCU) looked like a romp waiting to happen. The No. 17 Cyclones were hot out of the gate, taking two minutes to score their first basket but heading into the under-16 timeout with a 13-4 lead over a TCU team sitting at 4-5 in Big 12 play.

 As it turned out, the game was a romp. The team controlling the game, however, was different than many expected. 

After the quick 13-4 start, the Cyclones were outscored 27-4 in an eight-minute stretch, falling behind 31-17 and never recovering the lead in a 92-83 loss. In a Big 12 title race that gets more bunched at the top with every passing game, this was one the Cyclones had to have.

More importantly, it was one the Cyclones should have had. 

“I feel like we got good looks and what we wanted for the most part,” said redshirt junior forward Michael Jacobson. “One of those days, maybe.”

TCU came in to Saturday’s game against Iowa State without a road win in conference play, without a road win against a ranked team since 1998 (when the Horned Frogs won at No. 24 Hawaii) and with one win in its last three. 

However, the cracks in Iowa State’s defense — which had begun to show in spurts against Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma — reared their ugly head once again, with TCU getting anything and everything it wanted on the offensive end of the floor.

TCU shot 53.2 percent from the floor, 44.4 percent from 3-point range and averaged 1.21 points per possession.

The Horned Frogs spread Iowa State out and had success getting into the lane off the bounce, particularly with guards Alex Robinson and Kendric Davis. TCU finished the game with 44 paint points.

The Cyclones’ inability to make a stop frustrated coach Steve Prohm postgame.

“At the end of the day, ball-screen defense was not very good,” Prohm said. “We just didn’t have the pop, for whatever reason.

“We just had a lot tougher time guarding them than they did us today.”

A lot of teams will have trouble when the opponent goes lights-out, but the Cyclones countered by going cold for the entire first half. 

Iowa State started 1-for-12 from 3-point range and finished the game 7-for-24 from behind the arc. Not all of those looks were bad, either. The Cyclones were finding open shots, but nothing was falling.

Trying to run the Cyclones off of the arc was crucial to the Horned Frogs’ gameplan.

“They’re very good offensively, so we knew threes [would] be important to their rhythm,” Davis said. “They just so happened to shoot the ball bad tonight.” 

No, this doesn’t end the season for Iowa State. The Cyclones will be one or two games out of first place, depending on results from the Kansas State-Baylor game. 

But this one will sting for a Cyclones team with a lot of buzz surrounding it.

ESPN analyst Jay Williams has said multiple times he thinks the Cyclones are the most talented team in the Big 12. Prior to Saturday’s game, Iowa State was listed in the NCAA Tournament committee’s Top 16, checking in as a No. 4 seed (No. 13 overall). The Cyclones are garnering national attention and, until Saturday, were the favorites to win the conference, according to KenPom. Instead, Iowa State sits at 7-4 in Big 12 play, tied with Kansas in third place. 

Now, the Cyclones have a week to stew before heading to Manhattan, Kansas, to take on the potential Big 12 leaders in Kansas State. 

“We got humbled today,” Prohm said. “We weren’t very good.

“Now we’ve got to go try and humble someone else.”