Ejim shines in ISU exhibition win

AMES - It took Iowa State forward Melvin Ejim 18 seconds to get his game on in Sunday's 77-62 exhibition win over Division II Grand Valley (Mich.) State at Hilton Coliseum.

First, he stole the ball from the Lakers' Ryan Sabin.

Fourteen seconds later, he drained a pair of free throws.

Two minutes and seven seconds after that, the sophomore from Toronto drilled a three-pointer, notched his seventh point and ably laid the groundwork for an impressive all-around effort before an announced crowd of 13,221.

“That's definitely going to be an asset,” Ejim said of his enhanced outside shooting acumen. “Me and coach (Fred Hoiberg), we shoot every day. We go in there and we work on my jump shot and I think it's going better.”

Indeed.

Ejim, who stands 6-6, finished with 26 points, eight rebounds, two steals, two blocked shots and one turnover in 25 minutes.

He shot 8-of-10 from the field and 7-of-7 from the free throw line.

“Coach always keeps telling me, ‘Run the floor hard and guys are going to see you in transition,'” said Ejim, who hit 13-of-56 three-point attempts last season. “The guys we were playing (Sunday) weren't as fast or athletic as me, so I just kept running the floor getting easy baskets. That started helping me warm up and then I started knocking down shots.”

Chris Babb and Royce White scored 14 points apiece and Tyrus McGee chipped in 12.

“This was my first experience, but I liked it,” said McGee, who along with Ejim sank three threes (Babb made four). “I expected it.”

Babb shared game-high honors on the boards with Ejim. White added seven.

ISU held a 34-28 edge on the glass, but allowed nine offensive rebounds to their eight.

“We played pretty good,” McGee said. “We've got things to work on. We've got to crash the boards. We've still got to communicate, things like that.”

The Cyclones never trailed but twice saw their lead narrowed to 10 points in the second half.

“We got off to a great start hitting shots,” Hoiberg said. “I thought (the Lakers) were a little too comfortable offensively. They shot 46 percent in the first half. I think we did a better job of getting up into them in the second half and it showed in the stats. They shot 35 (percent) in the second (half). They hit some shots. They hit some tough shots. That's a team that's going to be very good in Division II.”

Former Michigan State star Chris Allen scored two points in 13 minutes.

The senior guard is bothered by a hip bruise sustained last week in practice.

“I think he'll be fine,” said Hoiberg, whose team prepped for Saturday's 7 p.m. regular season home opener against Lehigh. “We may hold him out a day or two (this) week.”

Guard Scott Christopherson, a vital cog in Hoiberg's early-season “point guard by committee” plan, had six assists but converted just one field goal in five attempts, finishing with four points.

“He did a good job getting us into a set,” Hoiberg said. “Royce handled some of those responsibilities as well. I thought both those guys did a god job. Royce tried to throw the one in between eight people, but other than that, I thought we did a pretty solid job of making the right play, the easy play, which is what we need to do. We need to try to get a shot up every time. We have too many weapons to turn the ball over.”