Wednesday night’s Iowa-Iowa State game set a high bar for the men’s game on Thursday night. It failed to live up to billing, as a red-hot shooting performance from Iowa sent Iowa State back to Ames with a 98-84 loss. 

Early on in the game, there was a shoving match, plenty of big shots and sloppy play to go around. 

Iowa came out firing on all cylinders, shooting the ball 56.7 percent from the floor in the first 20 minutes and hitting six of 10 3-pointers. Iowa junior Isaiah Moss was perfect from the floor in the first half, hitting all six of his shots and leading all scorers with 18 points.

Iowa State was cold for much of the half, and at one point found itself down 10. After crawling back to within three points, Tyler Cook dunked to beat the buzzer and pushed the Hawkeyes’ lead to 45-38 at the break.

A 6-0 run from Iowa gave the Hawkeyes a 58-47 lead at the under-16 timeout.  Iowa State trailed 63-47 with 13:43 to play after a Nicholas Baer three. 

Down 70-52 with less than 12 minutes to play, The Cyclones cut the deficit to 12 at the under-8 timeout, buoyed by Cam Lard and Marial Shayok buckets. 

Cook led all scorers with 26 points on 12-16 shooting. Iowa State was led by Talen Horton-Tucker, who had 21 points on 9-for-19 shooting. The game ended with shoving between players and words were exchanged between coach Steve Prohm and Cook.

Up next for the Cyclones is a home game on Sunday against Southern. Tip-off from Hilton Coliseum is set for 5 p.m.