By STEPHEN HAWKINS
Maybe tougher than winning on the road in the Big 12 for No. 13 Iowa State is how the Cyclones are losing away from home.
After Monte Morris’ tiebreaking putback at the end of regulation was a second too late, the Cyclones fell 100-91 at No. 25 Baylor on Tuesday night, their third overtime loss in a conference road game this season.
“We played hard, put ourselves in position to win on the road,” first-year coach Steve Prohm said. “Frustrating thing is you look at our road losses in this league, which is a terrific league — lost three games in overtime and we lost one we had the ball down two and missed a shot. That part is frustrating.”
After Deonte Burton blocked Johnathan Motley’s shot with 10 seconds left in regulation, Iowa State (18-8, 7-6 Big 12) took off the other way.
Morris missed a 3-pointer with 2 seconds left and came up with his own rebound. He took another shot that went into the basket, but officials immediately ruled that it came after the buzzer — and replay confirmed that.
Motley scored seven of his 27 points in overtime, matching his career high set last month against the same Cyclones as Baylor (19-7, 8-5) ended a three-game Big 12 home losing streak.
“We’re going to make sure someone has an Iowa State jersey every time we play,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said.
The Cyclones had three 20-point scorers: Abdel Nader with 26, Georges Niang with 24 and Morris with 20. Burton had 14.
Terry Maston had 15 points for Baylor, while Lester Medford, Taurean Prince and Al Freeman all had 14. Motley had 10 rebounds.
Niang surpassed 2,000 career points, and is fifth nationally among active NCAA players with 2,014. He passed former Iowa State coach and player Fred Hoiberg for third on the Cyclones’ career scoring list.
“Could care less about that,” Niang said. “I’m living in the right now, and it stings we lost a tough road game.”
Iowa State was coming off an 85-82 overtime loss a week ago at Texas Tech, and also had an overtime loss at Texas. There was an 87-83 loss at Oklahoma when Morris missed a go-ahead 3-point attempt with 5.8 seconds left before Buddy Hield made two free throws.
Baylor had a 78-73 lead with 3 minutes left in regulation after Motley’s dunk, but Nader — who had 19 points after halftime — hit a 3-pointer and Morris hit a tying jumper after Niang got a steal on a turnover by Motley.
Motley’s two free throws with 1:32 left tied the game at 81, which was the score going into overtime.
“Just have to hang because we’re doing some good things,” Prohm said.
EVENLY MATCHED
Baylor and Iowa State entered the game with identical records. Then there were 14 ties and 14 lead changes. The Bears never trailed in overtime, and went ahead to stay when Medford hit a 3-pointer from the left wing to break an 84-all tie. Burton missed a 3 for Iowa State, and Prince then had a bounce pass to Motley for an emphatic slam.
AILING BIG MAN
Rico Gathers, the Big 12’s top rebounder at 10.2 per game, missed his second game in the last three because of illness. “He wasn’t feeling well this morning, started to feel a little better and got woozy after practice,” Drew said. “We’ll get him to the doctor tomorrow.”
TIP-INS
Iowa St.: The Cyclones still lead the series 17-14, but have lost the last four.
Baylor: At halftime, Freeman had 10 points and five others had six each. … The Bears are 19-0 this season when they take a lead at any point after halftime. … Baylor is 10-10 against Top 25 teams the past two seasons.
UP NEXT
Iowa State hosts TCU on Saturday.
Baylor is at No. 24 Texas on Saturday.