Following the 67-65 win against Mississippi Valley State on Saturday, ISU men’s basketball coach Fred Hoiberg pounded the table in frustration.

But with a 77-71 win against Texas in the Cyclones’ Big 12 opener on Wednesday night in Hilton Coliseum, that memory seems distant.

“I saw us come together tonight,” Hoiberg said. “Believe me, we had a long talk about that after our last game, about not going out and playing as individuals when things get tough.

“We responded, there’s no doubt about that.”

Iowa State (11-3, 1-0 Big 12) got its first win against the Longhorns since 2005 and led by at least 14 points at one point in both halves.

However, Texas (10-4, 0-1) made runs to bring the Cyclones’ lead to within single digits each time. It was in situations like these that Hoiberg said his team has come to the huddle with their heads down and wouldn’t respond.

Against the Longhorns, however, that wasn’t the case.

“They go on that run, I call a timeout, and earlier in the season that’s when guys come over with their heads down,” Hoiberg said. “[Tonight], guys came over, they were energetic.”

The Cyclones shot their way out of Longhorn runs in both stanzas, ending the night shooting 51.1 percent from the field and 47.6 percent from 3-point range.

That was led by junior Chris Babb — who broke out of his 7-for-40 shooting slump heading into the game — going 5-of-9 from beyond the arc en route to scoring 17 points.

Babb also said he and his teammates responded well to the Texas runs and that his team felt confident it could shake the Longhorns off.

“That was a great feeling to get out of that slump,” Babb said. “I think it just came down to, we really just played as a team tonight. We knew they were going to go on a run. We just realized we need to stick together.”

Iowa State got its first win in a Big 12 opener since 2007 under current Creighton coach Greg McDermott, when the Cyclones got a win against Missouri on the road.

Big 12 play was the culmination of a long road for the much-discussed transfers of Babb, Royce White, Chris Allen and Anthony Booker, where the group knew its talent would really be tested.

“It feels real good [to get a win in the Big 12],” White said. “I’m proud of the team, man. I’m proud of the fact that down the stretch we believed in ourselves and understood that if we stay together, that we could beat this team.”

Both White and Babb spoke of the team coming together following the game and were proud that they finally found a way to fend off pressure late in the game to pull out the win.

The team hadn’t showed much confidence late in games prior to Wednesday night, but that may have changed following the victory.

“That was one of the best things about the game was handling when they had the run,” White said. “Instead of us folding or letting them push ahead, we found a way to go on our run and then we found a way to close out the game.

“I think that was the biggest sign of growth in our team up to this point.”