The ISU men’s basketball team saw good and bad Saturday in its 80-69 win against Oklahoma.

The good was the Cyclones’ (19-8, 9-5 Big 12) Scott Christopherson, who finished the game with 25 points, eclipsing the 1,000 point mark for his career, and Melvin Ejim, who pulled down 14 rebounds and scored 10 points.

“It’s a heck of an accomplishment and he will remember that for the rest of his life,” said ISU coach Fred Hoiberg of Christopherson breaking the 1,000-point mark. “He gave us great leadership. Scotty was out there running the show for us, and I thought he did a great job of getting the ball moving around.”

The bad, though, was Ejim’s ejection late in the second half. Ejim got in a brief altercation with the Sooners’ (13-13, 3-11) Carl Blair Jr., drawing an intentional foul that ultimately kicked him out of the game. Despite the ejection, ISU officials don’t believe it will affect Ejim’s status in the Cyclones’ game against Texas Tech on Wednesday night.

Ejim apologized following the game in an interview with The Des Moines Register, and Hoiberg — while acknowledging that Ejim didn’t react the way he should have — said he knew Ejim will learn from the situation going forward.

“I talked to them after the game, it’s a learning experience for our team,” Hoiberg said. “Usually they catch the second guy. You’ve just got to find a way to walk away from situations like that. We learn from it, we move past it, but we don’t anticipate anything further happening.”

Despite the altercation and subsequent ejection, the Cyclones could hang their hat on the team’s performance, if only because of the shooting stroke of Christopherson.

The senior, who reached 1,006 career points — 982 as a Cyclone, having transferred after his freshman season at Marquette — finished the game with 9-of-15 shooting from the field, including 5-of-8 from 3-point range. He also guided a 13-0 run to essentially seal the game in the absence of Royce White, who was in foul trouble in the second half. 

Christopherson was humble about breaking the mark, instead focusing on what lies ahead for him and his team.

“I think the biggest thing is if we keep finding a way to be successful these last four games — I’ll definitely remember playing in the NCAA tournament the rest of my life,” Christopherson said when asked how he’d remember passing the milestone. “That’s something I’d take a lot of pride in and that’s what I’m striving for.”

When pressed about what the 1,000 points meant to him, Christopherson said he’s proud of reaching that point, but that there are other things he’s working toward as a part of the team instead of as an individual.

“[The 1,000-point mark was] not really why I wanted to play,” Christopherson said. “It’s a great accomplishment [and] it’s really humbling when you think about all the other players in Iowa State history that have done it — guys that are a lot better than I am. It’s cool to be a part of that club, [but] I’m just focused on getting this team where we all want to go.” 

When he was first asked about the 1,000-point mark in the news conference after the game, Christopherson looked at his coach, sitting to his left, and asked what he thought.

If Christopherson wasn’t humble about the accomplishment before that, what Hoiberg said likely would have put it in perspective.

“You’ve got 993 to go to catch me,” Hoiberg said.