No. 18 Texas Tech evened up the season series against No.15 Iowa State with a, 72-60, win at the United Supermarkets Arena on Tuesday night.

The win gives the Red Raiders a 14-4 record on the season, and they're 2nd in the Big 12 Conference at 4-2. The loss drops the Cyclones to 14-4 on the year, and they fall into a three-way tie for last place in the conference at 2-4.

Here are my three takes from the round two bout between these two defensive heavyweights:

Everyone’s familiar with what Kevin McCullar does on the offensive end of the court. He’s third on the team in scoring and leads the team in rebounds and assists, but it’s his contributions on the defensive end that so often go unnoticed. McCullar had three steals in the first eight minutes of the game, and his defensive presence was felt right away by the Cyclones. He’s now seventh in the Big 12 and leads the team in steals with 1.71 per game. McCullar is a tough on-ball defender, and his long frame at 6-foot-6 gives shorter guards fits. His size also gives him the unique ability to switch and defend almost any player on the court. Mark Adams said after the game that he could talk about McCullar as a defender all night.

“He’s got an unbelievably high basketball IQ, and I challenge him because he’s really a great defensive player.” Adams said. “He’s a good offensive player too, but he’s got great instincts. He had an injury and has been a little fatigued, so we really haven't seen him play the defense he can play. He was our best defensive player overall last year, and he’s probably the most consistent defensive player we have this year. He’ll make plays, take charges, get deflections, and just talks. He’s great at communicating and telling guys where to go. He’s really the catalyst of our defense.”

In Texas Tech’s last three losses (Gonzaga, Iowa State, Kansas State), they had a combined 8 second chance points. The Red Raiders put up zero second chance points against the Wildcats last Saturday. Kevin Obanor took it upon himself to change that and had 9 of the team’s 13 second chance points on Tuesday night. He scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half, and he was 6-for-9 from the field with all his points coming in the paint or at the free-throw line. Obanor owned the glass for Texas Tech and grabbed 5 of his 8 rebounds on the offensive end of the court. When you’re playing a great defensive basketball team like Iowa State, coming up with offensive boards and converting second chance opportunities goes a long way towards grinding out a win. Obanor provided all that and then some. He was asked after the game what goes into being a successful rebounder.

“It’s just a winning mentality,” Obanor noted. “None of the threes that I shot fell and as a shooter, who wants to miss shots. But you have to find a way to impact winning without shooting the ball, so I just try to rebound, defend, and do the little things it takes to win. Winning plays like that make players like us thrive.”

The Texas Tech defense continues to show up and show out, game in and game out. The Cyclones four leading scorers were all held below their season average on Tuesday night. Izaiah Brockington, the fourth leading scorer in the Big 12, was held to only 12 points, and Gabe Kalscheur, fresh off a 22-point performance against the Longhorns, was held to only 7 points. The defense held Iowa State to only 60 points on 36.5 percent shooting and forced 16 turnovers. The Red Raiders have now held the Cyclones to two of their three lowest scoring totals and two of their three worst shooting performances of the season. In six conference games, teams are shooting a combined 37.9 percent from the field against Texas Tech. Mark Adams talked about his team’s defensive performance.

“What we try to do is make every team uncomfortable,” Adams said. “We couldn’t let them (Iowa State) get into a rhythm, so we were trying to pressure them and deny some of those easy passes to slow them down. We were able to do that pretty well at their place, and we kept the same gameplan at home. I thought we played one of the best defensive games all year. This was two of the top defensive teams in the country going at it toe-to-toe, and I was excited to see our guys respond and how hard everybody played.”