Iowa State Cyclones Showcase Ability To Win on an Off Night Against Baylor Bears

The Iowa State Cyclones were able to improve to 15-0 despite not having their best game on the road.

Jan 7, 2026; Waco, Texas, USA; Iowa State Cyclones guard Tamin Lipsey (3) drives to the basket against Baylor Bears guard Dan Skillings Jr. (0) during the second half at Paul and Alejandra Foster Pavilion. | Chris Jones-Imagn Images

The Iowa State Cyclones were able to move to 15-0 with their road win against the Baylor Bears by a score of 70-60.

Coming into the matchup, the Cyclones were certainly feeling good about themselves. They had a 14-0 record and started off conference play with a convincing win against the West Virginia Mountaineers and were looking to continue that momentum against the Bears. 

Playing the first road conference game of the season is always a challenge, and Baylor is a good program this year. Things got off to a really rocky start for the Cyclones in this one, and it certainly looked like a team playing its first conference road game of the campaign. 

Star point guard Tamin Lipsey got into foul trouble early, and it was not ideal to have their senior guard on the bench for most of the first half. The offense really struggled to find their groove early on in this one, and the first half was not a pretty one. Despite the struggles, Iowa State somehow had a one-point lead at halftime with momentum in the last couple of minutes. 

Great Win Despite Not Their “A” Game 

Chris Jones-Imagn Images

While it was far from a good performance offensively in the first half with just 25 points, the team did turn it around in the second half. A 45-point outburst looked a lot more like the Iowa State team that everyone has seen this year, and they ended up with a reasonably comfortable victory. 

Despite the early foul trouble, it was Lipsey who led the way for the Cyclones. Good guard play is key to success on the road, and he delivered with one of his best games of the campaign so far. Overall, he totaled 18 points on eight-for-13 shooting from the field. What was really impressive was that he was able to score that many points in just 26 minutes of action. 

Even though Lipsey was the star, he did have some help from Joshua Jefferson, who totaled 19 points and 17 rebounds in a monster double-double for the likely All-American. While those two stars showed up for the Cyclones, sharpshooter Milan Momcilovic had one of his worst games of the year. The talented shooter has been red hot of late but was held to just four points in this game. 

Overall, Iowa State beating a quality Baylor team on the road by 10 points is an impressive showing for the program. The Big 12 is going to be a tough conference, and the Cyclones have proved that they can still win convincingly, even when they might not be at their best.