Longhorns Comeback Attempt Falls Short in Loss to No. 14 Iowa State
AUSTIN -- Coming off their third Big 12 road victory on Saturday, the Texas Longhorns had another chance to add a ranked win to their budding resume on Tuesday night at the Moody Center against the No. 14 Iowa State Cyclones.
Instead, the oddities of what's been an up-and-down season continued for the Longhorns, who suffered their fourth home loss in conference play.
Texas forward Dylan Disu led all scorers with 28 points and 10 rebounds but Iowa State jumped out to an early double-digit lead in the first half and never looked back in a wire-to-wire 70-65 win.
Disu nearly mounted the comeback with 22 points in the second half after Texas trailed by as many as 18, but it wasn't enough to spoil things for the Cyclones, as the Longhorns fall to 1-4 at home in Big 12 play with the loss.
Disu wasn't concerned about his game-high scoring effort.
"Honestly, I'm more worried about what we did as a team tonight and not coming out with that win," Disu said. "We want to win our home games and make our fans happy. We feel like we let them down."
© Scott Wachter, USA TODAY
Texas coach Rodney Terry didn't have any answers for why the Longhorns have struggled at home against Big 12 opponents.
"It's a great question right now and we're still trying to work through that," Terry said. " ... It's really critical in the Big 12 that you're trying to win your home games because you know how hard it is on the road."
Iowa State (17-5, 6-3) got a team-high 13 points from Milan Momcilovic while Tamin Lipsey added 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Curtis Jones had 11 points off the bench and hit some crucial free throws late.
The Cyclones were coming off a heartbreaking 70-68 loss to then-No. 18 Baylor on Saturday, and admitted they were looking to let their frustrations out.
"Coming out after the Baylor game, we wanted to bounce back right away, take our aggression out on the next team and the next team ended up being Texas," Lipsey said. "We set the tone right away."
Aside from Disu, the Longhorns (15-8, 4-6) got double-digit scoring efforts from Max Abmas (13 points) and Dillon Mitchell (10 points). Texas guard Tyrese Hunter was the only scoreless Longhorn, as he went 0 of 8 from the field with three turnovers, but had a game-high seven assists.
The Cyclones won the offensive-rebounding battle 16-11, which made a difference down the stretch when the Longhorns were desperate for possessions.
Similar to Saturday's win over TCU, the Longhorns fell into an early double-digit hole. The Cyclones jumped out to an 18-6 lead behind some sticky defense, but the Longhorns didn't do themselves any favors by missing the few shots that weren't contested.
Abmas kept firing to begin the game but couldn't find his touch amid an 0 for 4 start from the field. As a team, the Longhorns were 5 of 19 from the field at the 5:10 mark of the first half and trailed 26-13.
Mitchell finally gave the Moody Center life with a highlight alley-opp in transition off a pass from Hunter, but this did little to slow the Cyclones down. Iowa State headed into the locker room on an 8-2 run, which helped build the lead up to 36-19 at the half.
Texas went 8 of 27 (30 percent) from the field and 0 of 7 from deep in the first half while committing nine turnovers. Disu led the Longhorns with six points. The Cyclones shot 16 of 31 from the floor (52 percent). Every Iowa State player that touched the floor in the first half scored.
At the start of the second half, the Longhorns got five quick free throws from Abmas, his first points of the game. The Cyclones kept their foot on the pedal though, and Terry, likely frustrated with the officials and his team's performance, picked up a technical foul at the 16:26 mark. Iowa State knocked down four free throws to build the lead to 44-27.
Texas had its share of chances to turn momentum around with the Cyclones offense falling into its own cold spell, but Iowa State held onto its double-digit lead.
Disu finally gave the Longhorns their first 3-pointer of the game at the 6:55 mark of the second half. Texas was 0 of 10 from deep up to that point.
After a timeout, Disu cut the lead to single digits at 57-49 after an and-one floater. It was the closest the Longhorns had been since the 6:02 mark of the first half when they were down 22-13.
From here, he single-handedly brought Texas back within reach, scoring the Longhorns' next 10 points behind two more triples to cut the lead to five at 62-59 with 2:50 to play.
However, a triple from Lipsey at the 1:39 mark helped essentially ice the game at 66-59. Abmas cut the deficit back to three with a layup, but a dunk from Tre King helped silence the crowd once again with 15 seconds left.
The Longhorns will host West Virginia on Saturday at 2 p.m. CT.
