Aljaz Kunc scored a career-high 22 points on just 10 shot attempts Wednesday night, lifting No. 19 Iowa State to a 70-59 Big 12 Conference win over No. 22 TCU in Ames, Iowa.
Kunc went 5 of 8 from behind the 3-point line and added five rebounds for the Cyclones (17-8, 8-5), who also got 16 points from Jaren Holmes. Iowa State canned 49 percent of its shots from the field, enabling it to overcome 16 turnovers.
Shahada Wells scored 15 points for the Horned Frogs (17-9, 6-7), who dropped their fourth straight game. Micah Peavy added 13 points but TCU struggled to play catch up because it was just 5 of 19 on 3-pointers.
Mike Miles, the Horned Frogs’ leading scorer at 18.1 points per game, missed his fourth straight game with an ankle injury. Miles is expected to return Saturday when TCU hosts host Oklahoma State.
The Cyclones started the second half with a 12-2 run that gave them a 47-26 advantage with 17:14 left. TCU whittled away at the deficit but never got closer than seven points in the final minute.
Iowa State wasted no time demonstrating there would be no hangover from its first home loss of the season Saturday to Oklahoma State. The Cyclones started the night with a 3-pointer from Kunc and held TCU scoreless for the first 3:36.
The margin reached 15-2 before the Horned Frogs scored 12 straight points, pulling within one on a transition dunk by Peavy at the 9:47 mark.
Iowa State controlled the remainder of the half with shot-making and tough defense. The Cyclones made five shots in a row at one point and kept TCU from using its lethal fast break. When Kunc drilled a 3-pointer in the last minute, the Cyclones took a 35-24 lead to the break.
The big stat in the first half was that Iowa State was 5 of 12 on 3s, while the Horned Frogs made only 2 of 9.

–Field Level Media