After the ISU men’s basketball team blew an eight-point lead down the stretch to Baylor in its first home loss of the season, forward Jameel McKay attributed the defeat to his team’s inability to handle success. Iowa State now faces an entirely different challenge — one more foreign to it than the welcomed burden of achievement.

No. 12 Iowa State (20-8, 10-6 Big 12) surrendered a 12-point second half advantage to Kansas State (15-15, 8-9 Big 12) at Bramlage Coliseum on Feb. 28, falling to the Wildcats by one point, 70-69. The defeat marks not only the second consecutive time the Cyclones failed to close out a crucial contest they had for the most part controlled, but also the first time all season that they find themselves in the midst of a losing streak.

As postseason play looms, the timing of Iowa State’s stumble is less than ideal. During the course of their previous two games, the Cyclones have played themselves out of contention for a Big 12 regular season title — an achievement that was fully within their grasp a mere 72 hours before.

The loss itself was devastating to the Cyclones’ most imminent goal of winning the conference, dropping them from sole possession of second place in the standings to a three-way tie for third. Yet it was the way they lost that made ISU coach Fred Hoiberg’s stomach turn.

“Certain things in life make you want to throw up,” Hoiberg said. “This is certainly one of them. It’s a hurt locker room in there. We’ve got to find a way to bounce back. We’ve got a game on Monday.”

The abbreviated time span before Oklahoma arrives at Hilton for Iowa State’s final home game of the season on March 2 will test the team’s capacity for the mental and emotional elasticity Hoiberg said will be required. Perhaps none of his players will face a greater test than the team’s leading scorer, Georges Niang, who tallied 21 points on 50 percent shooting against Kansas State.

Iowa State faced a sideline out-of-bounds play with 18 ticks remaining, holding a 69-68 lead. The in-bounds pass was crucial and who better to place faith in than the versatile forward who has made big play after big play for the Cyclones during his tenure at Iowa State?

This time, however, the ISU leader made a costly mistake. Kansas State defended the play well and when the five seconds allotted to make the pass had all but evaporated, Niang made an ill-advised attempt to get the ball to McKay — the second worst free-throw shooter in Iowa State’s regular eight-man rotation. McKay was not afforded an opportunity to put the Cyclones on his back, however, as the ball was stolen by Wesley Iwundu, who drove to the hoop and slammed home the two most important points of the afternoon.

The final sequence of the game was another errant in-bounds pass, which forced Niang into the back court for its retrieval with less than five seconds to play. He gathered the ball and found a way to get it into the hands of Naz Long, whose 3-point shot flew off the mark as the final buzzer sounded.

“We lost,” Niang said. “What more do you want me to say?”

There was little Niang could say, save for taking the blame, which the junior forward does more often than not, even when evidence doesn’t support that it is his alone to shoulder. A case could be made for an elevated level of involvement on the part of Niang in the details of this particular loss, but Long did not see it that way.

Long said that it was neither of the final two plays that actually cost Iowa State a victory, which would have kept the team within one game of the Big 12 lead.

“We were in control,” Long said. “We had a great lead. The only thing you can blame that on is mental lapses and not sticking to the game plan.”

Whatever adjustments the Cyclones need to incorporate into their game plan must be made with haste as time to prepare for Oklahoma is short, and the clock on the regular season is quickly running out.