It was not the blowout many Cyclone fans may have hoped for or expected, but the ISU men’s basketball team started its season with a win, beating Division II team Grand Valley State 77-62 on Sunday in Hilton Coliseum.

Sophomore Melvin Ejim led the Cyclones with 26 points and eight rebounds.

“We just played unselfish, knocked down shots and do what we always do,” Ejim said.

Ejim, who averaged 10.3 points per game last season, showed off some skills from beyond the arc, going 3-for-5 from 3-point range against the Lakers. The Toronto native said he expects that to continue this season.

“That’s definitely going to be an asset [going forward],” Ejim said. “Me and coach, we shoot every day. I think it’s gotten better [and] I’m going to continue to work on it.”

Much-discussed transfers Chris Allen, Chris Babb, Anthony Booker and Royce White all saw time during the exhibition game. Coach Fred Hoiberg said he liked what he saw out of the newcomers, but that there is still room to improve.

Hoiberg also said his team was not all that great defensively to start the game.

“I thought [Grand Valley State was] a little too comfortable offensively,” Hoiberg said. “We gave up nine offensive rebounds. That’s too many. We made progress in that area last week, but I think we took a step back today in securing the ball.”

White, in his first action since he was a high school senior in Minneapolis, was good for 14 points, seven rebounds and four assists. The former Minnesota Golden Gopher even excited the crowd with a one-handed slam dunk in the second half. He also spent a lot of time on the perimeter running the offense.

“For the most part, he does a great job making the unselfish play,” Hoiberg said of White. “With the offensive glass, he’s got to get in the habit of crashing the offensive boards every time.”

When White was not running the offense, senior Scott Christopherson — who started the game at the point guard position — led the offense for the Cyclones.

Christopherson finished with only four points, but dished out six assists. Hoiberg said Christopherson will still be a big part of the offense.

“You’ll see out of this team, we’ll have different leading scorers. We’re not a team that’s going to have one guy lead us every game this year,” Hoiberg said. “I think matchups will dictate a lot of times what we’re doing on offense, but Scott will definitely be a big part of it, and he knows he’s got to look for a shot.”

Hoiberg also said who the point guard is will depend on matchups throughout the rest of this season. He said he would “stick with my original stance, it’s going to be point guard by committee for us, probably all season long.”

The second-year coach also was happy his team faced some adversity in the exhibition matchup.

“They kept it right around eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 most of the night,” Hoiberg said. “What I told our guys is we need to have the mentality where we jump on a team — you’ve got to take it to the next level. If you have that mentality, you go and step on them when they’re down. That’s what really good teams do.”