LAWRENCE, Kan. — Their faces showed the hurt.

The scoreboard flashed the score: Iowa State 67, Kansas 80.

Even to the top team in the nation, losing is never easy, the Cyclones said after their second loss of the season, their first in the new Big 12 Conference.

But perhaps the most hurtful part of the night came when Dedric Willoughby went out with a reaggravated hamstring strain.

Or the pain could’ve come from the early fouls that Iowa State had. Kevin Cato had three after just 15 minutes of play.

Head Coach Tim Floyd said the hurt was self-inflicted.

“We got ourselves in trouble in the first half. We wanted to keep them under 70 [points] and we came out of the half with them at 40. We talked about that.”

In Kansas’ last nine losses, the Jayhawks failed to score more than 70 points.

“We gave up eight offensive rebounds in the first half and they converted them for easy baskets — cheap baskets. That killed us,” Floyd said.

Despite going out of the first half behind, the Cyclones led for much of the first part of the game.

Floyd’s plan was to slow things down — a spread offense with lots of screens to avoid the traps. But too many times the game was running at break-neck speed.

Floyd gave credit to Kansas.

“That team is definitely a contender for the national championship. Paul Pierce is the best player in the nation right now.”

Kansas’ unrelentless offense — which shot better than 55 percent from the field for the game — was too much without Cato and Willoughby.

Late free-throw points for the Jayhawks kept them way ahead.

Iowa State shot 50 percent from the floor. The Cyclones, now the eighth-ranked team in the land, are only the sixth team in the last four seasons to shoot that well against the Jayhawks.

Iowa State is now at 11-2 and 2-1 in the Big 12 Conference. The Jayhawks remain undefeated and ranked No. 1 at 17-0.