Lucca Staiger seems to like playing against Drake.

Last season, Staiger hit eight 3-pointers against Drake, one shy of the school record, but the Cyclones lost. This time he got the record hitting 10 out of 16 3-point shots en route to a 90-70 win in front of a crowd of 6,157 at the Knapp Center on Tuesday.

“It felt good seeing Lucca so comfortable,” junior forward Craig Brackins said. “He waited, he ball faked, stepped back and shot the three.”

Staiger got off to a similar start last season, hitting his first five 3-point shots, but cooled off a little bit the rest of the way.

“Last year there was a false sense of security early,” coach Greg McDermott said. “Lucca made his first five and had six of seven at halftime. We got away from getting inside touches. Tonight we still shot the three when it was there. I thought the three’s that we took, Scott took, and Lucca took were in rhythm and we made the extra pass but we didn’t forget about Craig inside.”

The rest of the Cyclones went 4 of 7 from behind the arc. One of the reasons  Iowa State was able to have  success from behind the 3- point arc, is because of the play that the Cyclones got from their Forwards. Junior forward Craig Brackins finished second on the team in scoring, behind Staiger’s career high 32 points, scoring 22 points and adding 10 rebounds.

“I just stayed patient and they were just so worried about me that it freed up Scott, Lucca and our shooters,” Brackins said. “And they just made them pay for it. I was just out there having fun.”

Although forward Marquis Gilstrap had a quieter night, scoring five points and grabbing nine boards, the Cyclones felt his contribution to the team.

“Having Marquis on the field, he didn’t score a lot, but he was still really aggressive and they had to pay attention to him,” Lucca said. “That was the reason why Scotty and I were open.”

The Cyclones got off to a fast start, riding a 5 of 6 three point shooting start (4 of five from Lucca) to a 17-7 lead.

The Bulldogs fought back, however, thanks in large part to guard Josh Young, who had success both driving and shooting against the Cyclones in the first half. Young had been a huge thorn in the Cyclones side in Drake’s three-game winning streak over Iowa State, scoring 18, 23 and 19 points respectively.

Young scored 11 points in the first half but a combination of Iowa State’s depth at the point guard position and a recent hip pointer injury, kept Young in check during the second half, as he was held scoreless.

With the win, the Cyclones defeated the Bulldogs for the first time under McDermott and they avenged a 35 point loss to Drake the last time they came to the Knapp Center.

“I was here my freshman year when we got humiliated, so it felt good to get back at them,” Brackins said.