Royce White Leads Cyclones Over Lehigh, 86-77
By Ross
Royce White started his career at Iowa State off with a bang. The Clones started off slow (only up by 3 at halftime) but exploded to open the second half of the game. White ended the game with a double-double as he scored 25 points and had 11 rebounds. The score ended up being close but the Cyclones dominated a decent Lehigh team especially in the first 10 minutes of the second half.
Lehigh jumped out to a 7-2 lead mostly due to 3 ISU turnovers. The Cyclones then went on a 9-1 run to take a 13-10 lead. The game went back and forth for most of the first half. A late foul by Tavon Sledge on C.J. McCollum narrowed the ISU lead to only 3, 42-39 at halftime.
The Clones were led by Royce White with 14 points at the half and Chris Allen added a pair of 3-pointers. ISU finished the half 13 for 27 from the field and beat the Mountain Hawks on the glass, 20 to 11. C.J. McCollum, the nation’s leading returning scorer, led Lehigh with 10 points as Chris Babb did a nice job defending him. The Cyclones did turn the ball over 10 times in the half and White had three of them.
The Cyclones came out of the locker room with a lot of energy. Chris Babb buried a 3-pointer to start the half for the Cyclones. With a couple more baskets, the Cyclones were up 10 with 15:43 left. Tyrus McGee hit back-to-back 3s and Scott Christopherson hit another right after McGee’s two to put the Cyclones up 73-21. Iowa State opened the half with a 31-12 lead and kept rolling for most of the half. ISU was up 26 points at one point but Lehigh scored a lot late to make it look somewhat close at 86-77.
At the end of the game, White led the team with 25 points and 11 rebounds. Christopherson (12), Allen (10), Babb (10, and Booker (10) were all over double digits in scoring. Behind White was Booker with 5 rebounds and McGee, Christopherson, and Babb had 4 boards. Iowa State ended the game 30 for 52 from the field and 10-22 from 3-point land. Here is the final box score
Like I said earlier, Lehigh went on a run late in the game to make it close but the Clones dominated the game. Iowa State was up 26 points at one point in the second half. Royce White had a monster day to start off his Iowa State career and Chris Babb had an excellent day guarding McCollum. The Cyclones will travel to take on Drake on Tuesday.