The ISU men’s basketball team needed a bounce-back game coming off of two straight losses, and it got it in a big way against Prairie View A&M.

The Cyclones (6-3) beat the Panthers (2-7) 84-59 on Tuesday night, led by freshman forward Percy Gibson, filling the starting spot of Royce White, who was three minutes late to the team’s shootaround before the game.

“Percy got us off to a great start,” said coach Fred Hoiberg. “We wanted to establish the inside early in this game — we felt we had a size advantage on [Prairie View A&M]. He’s a very crafty player, and you can see that in the way he plays.”

Gibson had career highs in points and rebounds, finishing the game with 15 points and seven rebounds in his first career start. The forward scored the first points of the game for Iowa State and said he wanted to get things rolling right from the get-go.

“Really, I just wanted to come in and make as much of an impact as I could early so we could get the team going,” Gibson said. “I felt like [scoring the first basket] just let me get in the flow of the game. All the nerves were just gone so I could really just play basketball.”

With Gibson playing well, Hoiberg put White on the floor at the same time as the freshman to create an advantage in the paint. The pair found each other a few times, and Hoiberg liked what he saw.

“With [Gibson] and Royce in there together, a lot of times they play off each other very well,” Hoiberg said. “Royce does a good job getting him the ball, passing it. Percy does a great job finishing.

“Having another player down there on the low block, it’s somebody else that [other teams] really have to account for.”

White added 12 points on the night, and Gibson said he liked the idea of getting mismatches with so much size on the floor.

“I definitely feel like that will help our team dominate because there’s so much of a mismatch if they don’t have enough size on their team,” Gibson said. “Either way, it’s going to be me getting off or him getting off, and they found me today.”

In addition to Gibson, guard Chris Allen had a productive night. The transfer from Michigan State played the point guard spot most of the evening and ended the game with 16 points, seven assists and only one turnover.

Hoiberg said he liked what he saw from Allen running the offense.

“We just needed to change things up,” Hoiberg said. “Even when he hasn’t played point, he’s done a nice job in different sets at getting the ball and making a little drop pass into Royce.

“We’ll evaluate [whether or not Allen will stay at the point] the next couple days, but I was pleased with what he did tonight.”

Communication has been a topic of discussion for the team as well, and both players and their coach thought they saw improvements in that area against Prairie View A&M.

Guard Tyrus McGee, who added 12 points himself — two of which on a tommahawk dunk in the second half — said he was pleased with how his team communicated.

“Tonight it really improved,” McGee said. “We talked defensively, we got the ball moving, we pushed the ball up the court.”

While Hoiberg did say he thought there was improvement in team communcation, he still didn’t see it for the full 40 minutes. The Panthers opened the second half on a 12-3 run while running a full-court press.

“We just had that lull in the second half where we just allowed them to get too comfortable again,” Hoiberg said. “I can’t wait to see this team play 40 minutes of really good basketball, because we’re certainly capable of it.”