Last week, ISU coach Steve Prohm said that one of the biggest things this team needed to work on was finishing games.

Well, whatever the first-year coach did prior to Saturday’s game, it must have worked.

No. 17 Iowa State (20-9, 9-7 Big 12) beat Kansas State (15-14, 4-12 Big 12) 80-61 on Saturday in the second-to-last game in Hilton Coliseum this season, and used a big second half run to do so.

“I just think we were back to having fun out there,” said senior Georges Niang. “We were really playing our game, playing for each other, and playing for a bigger purpose other than ourselves. That’s probably the biggest thing.”

After the first media timeout in the second half, the Cyclones put together an 18-4 run, giving them a 15-point lead. Junior guard Matt Thomas hit three three-point buckets from the corner during that span, pushing him to a 20-point night.

“I was getting a lot of great looks and I was just able to knock it down,” Thomas said. “That left corner was great for me tonight.”

It wasn’t just Thomas who had a big night, though. Five different Cyclones finished with double-digit points. Niang finished with 17 points, and Jameel McKay finished with 14 points and 17 rebounds — his sixth double-double of the season.

ISU coach Steve Prohm said that the success they had offensively Saturday comes as a result of good ball movement, something he has been trying to push for more lately.

“When we execute and we run offense and the ball moves side to side and then we get post touches or ball screens, we’re very, very good,” Prohm said. “I have to do a better job of demanding that and directing that, and then the players have to continue to execute that. You can look at our wins and losses. It’s not a secret that that’s the area we have to do better at.”

The Cyclones dropped 49 points in the second half, shooting just more than 65 percent from the field. They had 24 bench points on the night, one of the highest in recent weeks, and even outrebounded the Wildcats by one.

While it wasn’t perfect, Prohm said that it was a good showing of how good this team can really be.

“I think in the second half you saw a really good clip offensively and defensively,” Prohm said. “We were really good. The points were spread around. We had five guys in double figures. We just have to keep working on defensive rebounding and containing the ball. As we continue to do that, we’ll have a chance to continue to win and continue to advance.”

The Cyclones will host Oklahoma State on Monday before traveling to Lawrence, Kansas, next weekend to wrap up the regular season.

And while he still has nearly two weeks to get this team ready to go for the Big 12 tournament, Prohm said he has a good feeling going forward.

“These guys have done a lot of really good things,” Prohm said. “This is the fifth-straight 20-win season. There’s only a probably a sixth of the country with 20 wins or more. That’s terrific and that’s an accomplishment.

“They’re going to get rewarded, I just know that. Today was a great start.”