Or until Iowa State sweeps Kansas during the Big 12 regular season basketball race and disposes of the Jayhawks with four games yet to play in the conference campaign.

“Everybody in this locker room wanted to win the conference so bad. I think it’s impossible now,” KU guard Kirk Hinrich said after the Jayhawks’ 79-71 loss to the Cyclones on Saturday at Hilton Coliseum.

The loss KU’s fifth in a row overall to Iowa State dropped KU to 8-4 in the league, two games behind 10-2 ISU with four games to play.

It would take a minor miracle for No. 6-ranked KU (19-5 overall) to pass No. 7-ranked ISU (22-3).

Earl Richardson/Journal-World Photo

“I don’t want to say something is impossible, but I’m going to say it. It’s impossible,” KU senior Kenny Gregory said.

“Everybody is playing for second,” noted KU coach Roy Williams. “That’s hard for me to say because at Kansas we don’t play for second. I don’t think anybody is in (the race) except Iowa State. They’d have to stumble badly.”

The powerful Cyclones used a familiar formula to beat KU for the second time in 12 days Saturday outside shooting of the guards.

But this time, it wasn’t the senior duo of Jamaal Tinsley and Kantrail Horton combining for seven threes in an 11-of-17 three-point effort (Feb. 5 in Lawrence).

It was the frosh pair of Jake Sullivan and Shane Power burning KU for 10 threes in 12 tries (overall ISU hit 10 of 19).

Earl Richardson/Journal-World Photo

Sullivan hit six of eight threes and scored 22 points. Power hit four of four threes en route to 18 points.

“Isn’t it funny how that works?” KU center Eric Chenowith said, asked of the irony of two different guards scalding the Jayhawks in meeting No. 2.

Tinsley this time was one for 13 shooting and Horton two of eight.

“They have great spacing on the court. It seems somebody is always open,” Chenowith said.

Sullivan hit four threes in five tries in the first half, scoring 14 points as Iowa State took a narrow 37-36 lead into the break. Power had one three the first half, three the second.

“Power and Sullivan were sensational today,” KU coach Williams said. “They (Tinsley and Horton) would penetrate. We’d try to stop the penetration and they’d pitch out.”

Tinsley dished 11 assists and Horton five as the Cyclones fed the players with the hot hand.

“They rely on a lot of kids stepping out and making shots. They step out and they make them,” Williams said.

“They make you stretch your defense so much,” he added. “You’ve got to give somewhere. You try to stop the penetration, you’re going to give them a little more open (looks) on the outside. You get out there and play them tight on the outside shot, Tinsey and Horton foul your team out.”

The Jayhawks had some serious momentum entering the second half after Hinrich stole the basketball from Sullivan and hit a three right before the halftime buzzer.

However, Sullivan hit a pair of threes in a 9-0 run that upped ISU’s 40-38 lead to 49-38 with 15:48 left.

Thanks to Boschee (19 points) and Gregory (16) who had four apiece in an 8-2 run, KU trailed just 51-46 at 11:26.

That’s when Power responded with a pair of threes to give ISU a comfy 57-46 lead at 10:01.

“Every time I looked up the second half, I thought Power was making a basket. To me, it looked like he had 100 (points),” Williams said.

The Jayhawks still were not dead.

Down 64-50 with 7:11 left after a three by Power who else? the Jayhawks scored with threes by Gregory and Boschee and lagged, 64-56, at 6:11.

But ISU countered with a basket by Martin Rancik and two free throws from Tinsley and Paul Shirley to go up, 70-56, at 4:51.

ISU led, 74-63, at 1:55. Then Boschee hit a three and Chenowith a two and KU lagged just 74-68 at 1:17.

Horton hit a pair of free throws at 1:05 and after Hinrich missed a three, Power canned two free throws at :32.5, as KU’s sophomore point guard fouled out on the play.

Gregory hit a three at :25.0 to cut the gap to 78-71. Shirley hit a late free throw to account for the final score.

KU kept it close by shooting well.

Despite missing Drew Gooden (wrist injury) and Luke Axtell (back), KU hit 57.7 percent of its shots to ISU’s 44.6 percent.

The Jayhawks were doomed, however, by 22 turnovers to the Cyclones’ 12.

“I told them (Jayhawks) they fought hard. If we played that hard in some other games, we might have been in better position to win (league),” Williams said.

“It was a hard-fought game. That’s a very good team we played. You’ve got to hand it to Larry’s club,” he said of ISU coach Larry Eustachy. “They’ve had a magnificent run in the league for almost two full years now.”

Williams says fans should shed no tears for his Jayhawks, who meet Colorado at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday at Allen Fieldhouse.

“I don’t think we’re going to run away and hide. It’s like us when we were 36-2 in the league (first two-plus years of Big 12’s existence). Nobody ran away and hid from us. We’re going to be around. We’re not going to sit back in the bedroom and cry.”

Nope, no tears were shed after ISU all but wrapped up the league crown for the second straight year.

“If we can’t beat them, I don’t think anybody else can,” Chenowith said after his 13-point, four-rebound effort.

“You have to give them credit,” noted Iowan Nick Collison who scored eight points with three boards. “I think they are going to win out.”

ISU for the record finishes with games at Kansas State and Texas and home games with Texas Tech and Nebraska. KU plays CU and Missouri at home and Kansas State and Nebraska on the road.

“Give them credit. You can’t predict the future, but if everything goes the way it should, they win it easily,” Boschee said.