After a turnover-plagued first half, the Cyclones opened up a four-point halftime lead shooting 76 percent from the floor en route to a 92-60 win against Western Carolina on Sunday afternoon.

“The bottom line is they shoot 48 percent in the first half, 38 in the second and that’s when we’re at our best,” said ISU coach Fred Hoiberg. “We got the rebounds, beat them 34-16, and you look at that 25 assists on 32 field goals, we shoot 77 percent in the second half and that’s the team we can be and that’s what our guys have to start believing.”

The lowdown

The visiting Catamounts (2-2) took an 10-8 lead to start the game, led by five from sophomore guard Harouna Mutombo. However, the Cyclones quickly responded after the first media timeout as they went on a 17-5 run capped off by a 3-pointer by junior guard Tyrus McGee.

After a dunk by ISU redshirt sophomore forward Royce White put the Cyclones up 27-17 with 9:39 left in the first half, Western Carolina mounted a charge back led by Mutombo, who scored nine of the next 15 points for the Catamounts, who tied the game at 32-32 with 3:16 left in the half.

The Cyclones snagged six offensive rebounds in the final three minutes of play but only scored six points as Iowa State took a 38-34 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Iowa State increased its lead to as high as eight in the first six minutes of the second half until redshirt junior forward Anthony Booker was fouled as he went up for a dunk. Booker made the first of two free throws and after the second, redshirt senior guard Scott Christopherson dished it out to McGee, who nailed a 3-pointer. Redshirt junior guard Chris Babb knocked down another trey the next time down the floor for the Cyclones, who went on an 11-0 run before Western Carolina called a timeout.

The Cyclones outscored the Catamounts 26-12 in the final 10 minutes of the game as Iowa State rolled to its second victory at home and first since falling at Drake on Tuesday.

Turning point

Leading 52-46 with 13:54 left in the game, Booker entered the game for sophomore forward Melvin Ejim, who had just picked up his third foul. The next time down the floor, Booker went up for a dunk and was intentionally fouled. The transfer from Southern Illinois made the first free throw but missed the second as the Cyclones regained possession due to the intentional foul. Christopherson found McGee for a three, then McGee found Babb for a three.

“When you make a shot like that in the flow of the offense and go on a big run, its a great feeling,” Babb said.

White knocked down a jump shot and then McGee drained his fourth 3-pointer of the game. In the course of just two minutes and 31 seconds, the Cyclones opened up their lead from seven to 18 after the 11-0 run.

X factor

ISU guard Chris Babb

The Penn State transfer ended the night as Iowa State’s leading scorer with 18 points, 15 of which came via 5-for-5 shooting from 3-point range.

“We did a great job of moving the ball, and when we just all hit shots, it’s tough to guard and we just did a great job of making the extra pass. and my teammates were doing a great job of getting everybody the ball and getting open shots and I was fortunate enough just to be hitting,” Babb said.

Babb also grabbed six rebounds and dished out a team-high six assists in his 28 minutes on the floor.

By the numbers

7: consecutive 3-pointers made by McGee to start the season until missing one late in the first half. The ISU record for consecutive threes made is nine, held by Mike Taylor (2006-07) and Lucca Staiger (2008-09). McGee finished the game 4-for-5 from three, bringing his season total to 9-for-10.

10: first-half turnovers for Iowa State.

16: first-half points for Western Carolina sophomore guard Harouna Mutombo, who led all scorers in the game with 19 points.

61: 3-point field goal percentage for the Cyclones, making 11-of-18 shots from three.

77: second-half shooting percentage for the Cyclones, making 20-of-26 shots from the field.

100: percentage from 3-point range for Babb, tying an ISU record.

Postgame chatter

Hoiberg discussed Iowa State’s upset win against No. 2 Oklahoma State in football in his postgame opening statement:

“Let me first just talk about how proud I am to be a Cyclone right now with that football victory on Friday night. That was one of the most unbelievable scenes I’ve ever seen in this town. [I’ve] been living here since I was 2 years old [and] to see the passion and to see the way that football team came out and played as a group was unbelievable. I showed my guys Paul Rhoads’ speech, that was part of our edit yesterday when we were going through the Western Carolina team and their plays, and I showed them Paul Rhoads and what it means to be a team and how those guys have all bought in and they’re one. And that’s what we need to become,” Hoiberg said.

More from Hoiberg on the football game, which he did not attend:

“I was preparing for this one, wasn’t doing much preparing though when that game was going on. It was awesome, I mean I loved every second of that thing and then to watch Paul and the enthusiasm and the passion that he has for that group of kids and how much they love playing for him and how he’s got every single one of those guys to buy in to that team concept is something that all of us strive to be as coaches. We’re trying that with our guys to get them to believe in each other, to go out there and trust each other and have each other’s back. We didn’t have each other’s back at Drake the other night, we were getting beat and there was nobody there to help. You’re not going to be a good basketball team if you don’t have that trust and you’re not out there playing as one unit, so it was great, I mean those guys walked out of that locker room after I showed them that video of Paul yesterday and they were pumped up and they were ready to go and hopefully it had a good impact on our team today,” Hoiberg said.

Senior guard Scott Christopherson on Babb’s perfect shooting night from beyond the arc:

“They don’t happen that often, but its not really something as a player you’re not really thinking about, ‘Man it’d be hard to go 5-for-5,’ you just kind of take each shot individually and try to make it. When he gets his feet set and he’s open, he’s going to make a lot of them,” Christopherson said.

Up next for Iowa State

The Cyclones (2-1) will continue play in the South Padre Island Invitational when they host Northern Colorado at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. The Bears (0-2), who will face Northern Iowa at 6 p.m. Sunday, began the season with losses to New Mexico State and Wyoming. Six-foot sophomore guard Paul Garnica leads the Bears in scoring, averaging 16 points per game.