Soft-spoken slick-shooting senior hopes to continue school record

AMES - Iowa State senior guard Scott Christopherson adopts a refreshing approach to self-promotion.

He doesn't engage in it.

Case in point: Monday he described his 11-for-11 field goal shooting performance in last November's 91-43 win over Drake as “pretty good.”

Huh?

“He had one of those moments that you dream about as a shooter,” said Cyclones coach Fred Hoiberg, whose team seeks its third straight win over the Bulldogs in Tuesday's 8 p.m. intra-state matchup at the Knapp Center in Des Moines. “It was fun to watch, fun to be a part of that game.”

Christopherson, who has drilled at least one three-pointer in an ISU record 35 straight games, hit all five of his attempts from beyond the arc in last season's 91-43 win over Drake and also made both his free throw tries.

“You have those days,” he said. “They're a lot of fun.”

That's all he had to say about that.

The Cyclones (1-0) hope to build off what went right in Saturday's 86-77 season-opening win over Lehigh at Hilton Coliseum.

ISU blew open a three-point game early in the second half with a crisp pass-filled 37-14 run that featured three-point baskets from four different players.

Christopherson drained one three in that 13-plus minute span.

“I think everybody kind of settled into the flow of the game,” he said. “We were really moving the ball around well and guys were knocking down shots. Now the challenge is to do that even when the shots aren't falling because you're not going to make shots at that rate all the time, every night. That's a sign of a mature team with a lot of character that you keep moving the ball, keep finding the open man and find ways to get quality possessions.”

Royce White - who Monday earned Big 12 rookie of the week honors based on a 25-point, 11-rebound effort Saturday - didn't get double-teamed much by Lehigh, Hoiberg said.

When defenses choose to pay more attention to him, shooters such as Christopherson, Chris Babb, Chris Allen and Tyrus McGee could thrive even more from the perimeter.

“If they do come down and double team, hopefully our spacing is good and we can get the ball moving around the horn,” Hoiberg said.

Defense spurred the Cyclones' big second-half run against the Mountain Hawks, too.

“Our defense definitely helped us break out and get ahead,” ISU forward Melvin Ejim said. “We forced a lot of turnovers and we forced them to take bad shots. We capitalized on that.”

Drake (1-0) should get a boost from Rayvonte Rice, who sat out the team's season opener.

Rice, a sophomore, scored a school freshman record 428 points last season (13.8 per game).

“I know Drake will come out prepared, playing in front of their home fans,” Hoiberg said. “We need to come out of the locker room ready to roll.”