Iowa State’s 2020-21 season of losing continued to pile up in a tough 79-76 loss to TCU on Tuesday in Fort Worth, Texas.

Iowa State and TCU were tied up 66-66 with three minutes left, with both teams sitting in the bottom half of the Big 12 standings in desperate need of a win.

The Cyclones seemed to be in control, even holding a nine point lead in the second half, but cost themselves a chance to grab their first conference win thanks to a nine-minute stretch of no offense and foul trouble.

Nine minute cold spell

Tre Jackson’s layup at the 9:20 mark of the second half put Iowa State up 64-59, but it would end up being one of the last made field goals it would get against the Horned Frogs.

After Jackson’s layup, Iowa State went the next 8:52 of play shooting 0-12 from the floor with three turnovers.

Rasir Bolton’s layup with 28 seconds left would be the next Iowa State field goal, but by then it was too late and TCU had already reclaimed the lead 77-73.

Without Iowa State’s severe lack of offense, TCU likely would not have walked away with a win. The Horned Frogs struggled themselves in terms of scoring in the second half, just not as much as Iowa State.

The Horned Frogs shot 33.3% from the field and 11% from 3-point range in the second half, but thanks to the Cyclones’ offensive breakdown, they proved to be victorious.

Rasir Bolton stays hot

Although the Cyclones continue to lose games and the time to do so continues to decrease, one shining light has been the offensive production from Bolton.

The junior point guard scored a season-high 26 points, along with five assists and six rebounds Tuesday night in the close loss. Bolton shot 6-14 from the floor and went to the charity stripe 13 times and made all 13 attempts.

Tuesday marked his sixth straight game scoring at least 15 points, a stretch where he’s shooting 44% from the field.

In Iowa State’s previous loss against Oklahoma on Feb. 6., Bolton put up 21 points from his 5-8 shooting from distance.

Bolton leads the Cyclones in scoring at 16.6 ppg, with the next closest Cyclone trialing him by five points.

Foul trouble 

Iowa State may have had a relatively full roster against Oklahoma on Feb. 6. and against TCU on Tuesday, but at some times, the Cyclones’ make it feel like they are shorthanded. A big reason why is because of foul trouble.

Four cyclones had at least four personal fouls on Tuesday, including Jalen Coleman-Lands who fouled out of his previous two games coming into Tuesday in Fort Worth.

TCU benefited, going to the foul line 31 times thanks to the Cyclones 21 fouls as a team, a season-high for the Horned Frogs, beating the 30 attempts Tulsa and Prairie View allowed to them earlier in their season.

The 79-76 loss was the third straight game for Iowa State with over 21 personal fouls as a team.