Iowa State men topple Grand Valley State

ISU sports information

AMES -  The Iowa State men's basketball team went wire-to-wire in its 77-62 win over Grand Valley State Sunday in an exhibition game inside Hilton Coliseum on Sunday.

 Sophomore Melvin Ejim paced the Cyclones with a game-high 26 points on 8-10 shooting in front of 13,221 fans. The Toronto, Ontario, native also registering a team-high-tying eight rebounds.

Junior Chris Babb and sophomore Royce White each chipped in with 14 points in the winning effort. Babb tied Ejim for the team lead in rebounds with eight. White notched seven rebounds and four assists.

The Cyclones got off to a hot start with a 21-9 run in the opening seven minutes and never looked back. Ejim led the early charge with nine points. The game was nearly even the rest of the way in the first half, with the Cyclones taking a 43-32 edge to the locker room. Ejim led all scorers in the opening frame with 14 points.

Iowa State's scoring effort was buoyed by a 43.5-percent shooting clip (10-23) from behind the arc. Babb led Iowa State with four 3-pointers, going 4-5 on the game. Babb was 5-6 from the field in the game.

As a team, the Cyclones were 24-47 (51.1 percent) from the floor.

James Thomas was the leading scorer for the Lakers with 16 points on 5-13 shooting. Nick Waddell and Mike Przydzial led Grand Valley State in rebounds, each collecting five boards.

Sunday's exhibition was Iowa State's lone public tune-up of the season. The Cyclones travelled to Nebraska one week ago to face the Cornhuskers in a closed exhibition.

Iowa State opens its regular season Saturda, hosting Lehigh comes at 1 p.m.