AMES, Iowa – Gabe Kalscheur poured in 22 points, including 15 in the second half, to help No. 15 Iowa State (14-3, 2-3 Big 12) hold off No. 21 Texas (13-4, 3-2 Big 12), 79-70, Saturday afternoon in Hilton Coliseum.
Kalscheur buried a season-high six 3-pointers and made 5-of-9 in the second half, including two big ones down the stretch.
ISU held a 14-point lead with 7:54 remaining, but on a couple of occasions UT trimmed the lead to six points. Kalscheur’s timely treys were huge in shifting the momentum.
Tyrese Hunter added 13 points and dished out a career-high eight dimes to aid the Cyclones.
ISU also received a big boost from its bench, getting 29 points from Caleb Grill (9), Robert Jones (8), Aljaz Kunc (8) and Tre Jackson (4).
After falling behind early, the Cyclones used a stretch of 6-of-7 shooting to take a 23-18 lead at the 7:40 mark of the first half. Kalscheur and Kunc both hit treys in the flurry.
The Cyclone lead increased to 32-22 with 4:22 remaining on a pair of buckets from Jones and Tristan Enaruna, who were both on the receiving end of nifty passes from Hunter.
UT closed the half with a 9-4 run to cut the Cyclone lead to 38-31 at the break.
Kalscheur got hot to open the second half, connecting on all three of his 3-point attempts to push the Cyclone lead to 51-36 with 16:14 remaining.
ISU maintained its double-digit lead throughout the middle part of the second half, but an 8-0 Longhorn run trimmed the deficit to 64-58 with under six minutes left. Kalscheur then answered with a banked in trey from the right corner with the shot clock winding down to stop the run.
The victory was ISU’s fourth over a ranked team this season. The Cyclones shot a season-high 56.9 pct. from the field.
