Iowa State downs Texas, 78-67.

Needless to say, this game was maybe the single most anticipated game of the entire schedule for a number of reasons.

The start of the game was owned by Texas, led by Tyrese “Benedict Arnold” Hunter hitting a couple of threes and free throws to lead the Longhorns to a ten-point lead halfway through the opening period. The Cyclones seemed to be preoccupied with trying to slow down Hunter, and gave up some easy buckets down low.

However, as always, these Cyclones refused to roll over, and fought their way back via the efforts of Jaren Holmes and a couple threes from Gabe Kalscheur and Caleb Grill. For the remainder of the half, Iowa State used stifling defense and some timely buckets to crawl all the way back and take a 36-35 lead into halftime.

The start to the second half saw a continuation of the Cyclones solid play, flirting with a double-digit lead just a few minutes into the half, but Texas climbed back through some lackluster offensive possessions for Iowa State and some soft foul calls in the Horns’ favor.

Then the Cyclones came alive.

The defense came out for blood, forcing turnovers, bad shots, and shot clock violations like they were going out of style. Then, Caleb Grill delivered maybe the coldest piece of trash talk in history.

Guy canned a three to give Iowa State a nine-point lead and immediately turned around and told to Texas to call a timeout. Elite.

The rest of the way, Jaren Holmes and Caleb Grill kept making bucket after bucket, powering the Cyclones to a 78-67 that had to have been absolutely miserable for Texas fans for the last half hour or so. And, since you asked, Tyrese Hunter never scored again after making his free throws with just over 12 minutes to play in the first half.

Jaren Holmes led Iowa State in scoring with 21, while Caleb Grill and Gabe Kalschuer trailed closely behind with 17 and 16 points, respectively. Osun Osunniyi had himself another good game, finishing with 11 points and seven rebounds on 5-of-6 shooting from the floor.

Next up is Oklahoma State on Saturday before another huge game next Tuesday against Kansas State, who just took down Kansas to create a three-way tie atop the Big 12.