After beating the Texas Longhorns on the road on Wednesday, the Iowa State Cyclones faced another road challenge with the TCU Horned Frogs on Sunday in Fort Worth, Texas.

Iowa State dominated in its game on Wednesday however, the same couldn’t be said for its game on Sunday.

TCU controlled the paint, made fewer mistakes and held control throughout, leading to an 82-72 loss for Iowa State.

TCU dominated in the paint on both ends

The Horned Frogs’ plan on offense was simple — attack the paint. They scored 42 points in the paint.

Not shooting three-pointers paid dividends as they shot 52.7 percent (23-44) on two-point shots.

They also took advantage of their free-throw attempts, as they shot 12-15.

Defensively, the Horned Frogs also controlled the paint forcing the Cyclones to take shots outside of the paint and limited the Cyclone’s number of trips to the free-throw line.

The Cyclones scored a mere 16 points in the paint and only earned nine free throw attempts, making six. They were outscored 54-22 in points in the paint and free throws combined. 

One of the reasons that the Horned Frogs had that wide of a margin, was because it made fewer mistakes than the Cyclones did.

Turnover margin continues to be a problem for Iowa State

Turnovers have been the Achilles heel for Iowa State all year long. Iowa State’s turnover margin has contributed to some of its losses this season.

Iowa State has a turnover margin of -3.59, which is dead last out of the ten teams in the Big 12 and is tied for 309th out of 348 teams in the NCAA.

Meanwhile, TCU had a 4.39 turnover margin, which is third-best the Big 12 and 35th in the NCAA.

The turnover battle went as expected on Sunday as TCU had a plus-five turnover margin, as it only committed 11 turnovers while Iowa State committed 16. 

The turnover margin and its control in the paint led TCU to holding control for the majority of Sunday’s game.

The Horned Frogs dominated the lead

At the end of the first quarter, the Cyclones led 17-16. While this didn’t look likely at the time, this would be the last time that the Cyclones held the lead.

The Horned Frogs made a layup on their first possession of the second quarter to take an 18-17 lead. 

They would go on to extend their lead to as much to 13 points, while the largest lead that the Cyclones had in the entire game, was one point. 

The Cyclones led for only 1:57 of game time while the Horned Frogs lead for 36:44.

This loss knocks the Cyclones (15-9, 7-6 Big 12) from third place in the Big 12, to fourth as they are now a half-game behind the Longhorns (15-9, 7-5 Big 12). 

Meanwhile, the Horned Frogs (18-5, 9-3 Big 12) are second in the Big 12 and have a full two-game lead over the Longhorns, but trail the defending Big 12 champions and number one ranked Baylor Lady Bears, by three games.

What’s next?

Iowa State returns home to face Texas Tech (15-8, 4-8 Big 12) at 2 p.m Sunday at Hilton Coliseum.