WACO, Texas — It wasn’t a new situation for Steve Prohm and the Cyclones.

In fact, they’ve already seen it twice this season.

Against Gonzaga at the AdvoCare Invitational, Iowa State fell by two points in the final seconds — its offense becoming stagnant. Against Cincinnati, it was the same thing, falling by one point in the final seconds.

On Wednesday, Iowa State (9-4, 1-1 Big 12) fell to No. 2 Baylor (14-0, 2-0 Big 12) 65-63 in the final seconds at the Ferrell Center after leading by at least six points at its peak in the second half.

“Our guys did everything we asked of them tonight,” Prohm said. “We put ourselves in a position to win. We just didn’t finish the game. We have to start closing games.”

With nearly five minutes left in the game, Iowa State led by four points. But as the game winded down, it just couldn’t hold on. Its offense, which had found a way around Baylor’s immense size, stalled.

“It’s just staying aggressive,” Mitrou-Long said. “We had the lead. We got away from that and definitely that’s the guard’s fault. We weren’t getting in gaps. We were being stagnant up top, everyone of us… We just weren’t being aggressive and didn’t execute some things down the line. That cost us the game.”

Iowa State struggled in the first half to get anything to fall inside the 3-point line. They went just 4-of-16 from inside the arc, and had only six points in the paint. Baylor, on the other hand, had 24 points inside the paint and out-rebounded the Cyclones by eight in the first half. That’s not surprising, though, since the Bears have three players who get significant minutes who are 6-foot-8 or taller.

It was their performance behind the arc, though, that kept the Cyclones in the game. Iowa State went 8-of-15 from 3-point land in the first half, five of which came in the final minutes of the period. At halftime, Iowa State trailed by just one point, down 37-36.

“I think we were trying to score right away off of the interior pass, and that wasn’t what we wanted to do,” Prohm said. “You’re 1-on-1 at 6-6 against a 7-foot, so that wasn’t smart… We were shooting way too quick in the first couple minutes of the game. We weren’t supposed to do that.”

In the second half, Iowa State pushed ahead quickly, running in transition and picking up several quick layups — three of which came from Naz Mitrou-Long. The fast-paced offense and transition game, something it lacked in the first half, allowed Iowa State to push ahead of Baylor early in the half to give it a six-point lead. And in the first 10 minutes, Iowa State allowed Baylor just four points in the paint.

It had found a way to shut the Bears down.

The two teams battled from there on, and with 90 seconds left, the game was tied 63-63. Baylor held down for a near final shot when Manu Lecomte hit a floater to put the Bears up two. Morris went down to attempt a layup with just 8.2 seconds left in the game, but it didn’t go. Baylor survived the two-point win.

“It really shouldn’t have come down to that last possession,” Prohm said. “I mean Lecomte made a tough shot, but we were up 61-65 I think, we had some opportunities to make some plays and we didn’t make them. We need to stay in attack mode.”

Even though the Cyclones fell to Baylor for the fifth time in a row, Morris put the game in perspective. Baylor is the No. 2 team in the country — and will likely move to the top spot following No. 1 Villanova’s loss to No. 18 Butler Wednesday night.

Morris said they’re close. Wednesday proved that.

“We just have to go back to the drawing board and figure things out,” Morris said. “We played the No. 2 team in the country to a one-possession game. People thought we were going to get beat by 20 or 30.

“That just shows us where were at. We just have to keep going.”