It happened with just eight seconds left in the first half. After a half in which the Cyclones turned the ball over nine times and were only up two on Lehigh, Royce White made his official arrival.

The 6-foot-8-inch forward from Minneapolis threw down a dunk that lit up the Hilton Coliseum crowd, brought the Cyclones (1-0) to life and led Iowa State to an 86-77 victory.

“It was a great take, great crossover move,” said coach Fred Hoiberg. “He just went in there and tomahawked it.”

White ended his first game as a Cyclone with 25 points and 11 rebounds, shooting 9-of-15 from the field on the day. The forward made a concerted effort to score throughout the game, backing his defender down on several instances.

The scoring came in contrast to White’s play in the exhibition against Grand Valley State, when it looked like he was more eager to pass than shoot.

“Up until this point coach [Hoiberg], almost to a fault, tells me that I’ve got to look to score more, especially when I’m up around the basket,” White said. “Today I started to feel it a little bit, and my teammates kept giving it to me.”

White characterized his game as just “OK,” but his coach liked what he saw.

“I thought Royce was great,” Hoiberg said. “I thought he did a really nice job of picking and choosing his spots and when to attack. A couple of those dunks were just big-time plays.”

While Hoiberg and White were satisfied with White’s performance, they both lamented the 18 team turnovers in the contest, six of which came from the forward.

White has been talked about as a skilled passer, but his coach said following the game that it’s something he’s going to have to be more selective about.

“The six turnovers, that’s not him,” Hoiberg said. “He tried to squeeze a couple passes, I thought, through too many hands, and we’ve got too many weapons to turn the ball over 18 times.”

Hoiberg went on to talk more about White’s ability to facilitate, and said his teammates feed off White in more ways than just receiving the basketball.

Guard Chris Babb — who had 10 points, five assists and four rebounds — said he and the other Cyclone basketball players are inspired by what White does to the crowd as much as anything.

“I think that’s something we do well, is feed off each other,” Babb said. “I think there’s always somebody that’s trying to keep everybody going. Today, it happened to be him. We’re happy we were able to feed off [White].”

The announced crowd of 13,343 came alive on several plays, but none more than that dunk just before halftime. On multiple occasions White urged the Hilton crowd to stand up and cheer, which they were more than happy to do.

It is something both Hoiberg and White said all the players notice.

“Every time we do something good, you can feel it,” White said. “You can feel the emotion generating onto the court, and it just feeds us.”