Paced by Royce White’s team-high 25 points, Iowa State opened up a three-point halftime lead early in the second half as the Cyclones cruised to an 86-77 season-opening win over Lehigh on Saturday afternoon.

The Lowdown

Coming off a 78-73 loss to St. John’s on Wednesday night, Lehigh (0-2) started the game strong, taking a 9-4 lead. Junior forward Holden Greiner knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in the game’s opening 4:25.

The Cyclones (1-0) took their first lead with 12:27 remaining in the half as sophomore Melvin Ejim, who led the Cyclones with 26 points in their exhibition win over Grand Valley State, snagged an offensive rebound and scored on a putback.

Both teams went back and forth as the score was tied nine times, with five lead changes throughout the first half.

With just over 20 seconds on the clock in the first half, the Cyclones gave forward Royce White an isolation opportunity on Lehigh forward Justin Maneri. White drove down the right side of the lane and threw down a one-handed slam while being fouled. White knocked down the free throw to give the Cyclones a 42-37 lead, their biggest of the half. Lehigh guard C.J. McCollum was fouled with four seconds remaining and knocked down two free throws, cutting Iowa State’s lead to 42-39 as the teams retreated to the locker rooms for halftime.

ISU redshirt junior guard Chris Babb started off the second half draining a 3-pointer to give the Cyclones a 45-39 lead. That shot kicked off a 14-6 run for Iowa State as it took a 59-45 lead with 14:34 remaining in the game.

A 3-pointer by redshirt junior forward Anthony Booker spurred another ISU run two minutes later as the Cyclones scored increased their lead to 26 after a 20-6 run brought the score to 79-53 with 7:37 left in the game.

Lehigh mounted a comeback late with a 11-2 run to end the game but it would not be enough as Iowa State handed the Mountain Hawks their second loss in as many games.

Turning Point

Up three at the half, the Cyclones got back-to-back buckets from Babb and White and played stout defense as Lehigh missed their five of their first six shots. After White missed a jump shot and junior guard Chris Allen misfired on a three, the Cyclones attacked the paint with four layups over the next 2:16 to bring their lead to 59-45.

The Cyclones continued that early momentum throughout the second half, outscoring the Mountain Hawks 31-12 through the first ten minutes of the second half.

Lehigh would outscore Iowa State 24-7 over the final 7:37 of the game but the Cyclones’ lead, which grew to 26 before the final 7:37, would be too much for the Mountain Hawks to overcome.

X Factor

ISU forward Royce White:

Making his regular season debut for the Cyclones, White recorded a double-double with team-highs in points (25) and rebounds (11). The redshirt sophomore from Minneapolis threw down a pair of dunks in the game including one with eight seconds in the first half that brought the crowd of 13,343 to its feet.

The 6-foot-8, 270-pound White finished nine-of-15 from the field and made seven of his nine free throws.

Postgame chatter

“It was very emotional for me, a lot of pre-game jitters but I got out there, and I’m just confident in my team,” White said about his regular season debut. “I’m confident in my teammates, I’m confident in our coaches and our scheme. So once we got in the flow of it, I could see that we had a pretty good handle on the game.”

“I could tell he was tired. He yawned about 30 times in pregame; I’m sure he hadn’t slept at all the last few nights,” said ISU coach Fred Hoiberg about White’s anticipation of his regular season debut.

“I think that’s going to draw a lot of attention on him which he’s also a great passer. Don’t let the six turnovers fool you; he’s great at finding teammates. So now I think that they see he can drive like that, that’s going to open up everything else for our offense,” Babb said about White’s ability to drive with the basketball.

“I was disappointed the way we finished. That’s unacceptable when you have a 26-point lead with seven and a half [minutes] left and you only win the game by nine. So I just talked to our guys about continuing to play, keep pushing and keep putting pressure on the defense,” Hoiberg said.

“It’s something that hurts a lot. I mean you fall right directly on that hip, and it takes a while to get it back so he probably won’t be 100 percent for a while yet. But he’s definitely better than what he was last week,” Hoiberg said about redshirt senior guard Chris Allen who suffered a hip pointer last week in practice. Allen scored 10 points in 28 minutes on Saturday.

By the Numbers

6: ISU players with a 3-pointer in the game. Chris Allen, Babb, Booker, Scott Christopherson, Tyrus McGee and Bubu Palo all knocked down shots from beyond the arc.

+10: rebounding edge for Iowa State as they out-rebounded the Mountain Hawks 38-28.

14: consecutive season-opening victories for the Cyclones. The last time they fell in a season-opener was on Nov. 23, 1997, in a 54-48 loss to Northern Iowa.

14: first-half points for White which equaled his total in Iowa State’s exhibition game against Grand Valley State. White finished with a team-high 25 points.

17: points for Holden Greiner, Lehigh’s leading scorer. The junior forward nearly recorded a double-double as he also led the Mountain Hawks in rebounding with nine.

35: consecutive games with a three-pointer for Christopherson, extending his ISU school record.

65.4: field goal percentage for Iowa State in the second half, up from 48.1 in the first half. The Cyclones made 17 of their 26 second half shots.

Up next for Iowa State

The Cyclones will take the short drive down I-35 to face the Drake Bulldogs on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. at the Knapp Center. The Bulldogs open the regular season on Saturday night at home against Division II Upper Iowa at 7:05 p.m.

The Bulldogs were picked to finish seventh among 10 teams in the Missouri Valley conference. They are led by sophomore guard Rayvonte Rice who set the Drake freshman scoring record with 428 points last season.