After losing its first intrastate game last week against Northern Iowa, the ISU men’s basketball team fared no better against Drake (6-1) on Wednesday night, falling 79-44 in front of 6,103 fans at the Knapp Center in Des Moines.

It was the sixth straight game the Cyclones (3-4) have lost to a Missouri Valley Conference opponent under coach Greg McDermott, marking the first time since the 1978-79 season that Drake has won back-to-back contests against Iowa State. The Bulldogs defeated Iowa State, 80-78, last year at Hilton Coliseum.

The 35-point margin of victory is the largest ever for Drake in the 167-game series.

“This is my 19th year involved in this game, and you have a tendency to see a little bit of everything. Tonight was one of those nights,” McDermott said. “Drake was very good, and they deserve all the credit. They beat us in every phase of the game – they outhustled us, they outexecuted us and they took advantage of our weaknesses.”

After falling behind, 13-5, early in the game, the Cyclones never found a rhythm on either end of the floor. The Bulldogs had a hot first half, forcing nine turnovers and making 6 of 13 3-pointers to open up a 15-point halftime lead.

Iowa State had no answer for Drake’s two leading scorers, Leonard Houston and Josh Young, who combined for 39 points on 7-of-8 shooting from downtown.

Young scored a game-high 23 points and grabbed five rebounds without turning the ball over in his 33 minutes, and Houston added 16 points to go along with three steals.

“I thought Josh Young and Leonard Houston, in particular, were able to take advantage of some mismatches,” McDermott said. “Our goal coming in was to really take away the 3-point shot and live with a little penetration and kick as long as it wasn’t to one of those two or Klayton Korver, and we didn’t execute that plan very well.”

In contrast to the hot shooting of the Bulldogs, Iowa State stumbled to a 37.8 percent field-goal percentage in the game and also committed 21 turnovers, leading to 29 of Drake’s points.

Sophomore Wesley Johnson, who led the Cyclones with 10 points, all in the first half, was limited to just 4 minutes of action in the second half. McDermott said Johnson is still feeling the effects of a bone bruise in his left foot sustained earlier in the season, which has the coach considering using a medical redshirt for his star guard.

“We’re going to have to make some tough decisions here in the near future, because it would not be fair to Wesley to have to play an entire season like he tried to play on Friday night [against Oregon State],” McDermott said Monday. “It’s obvious he’s not 100 percent. He’s too good a player and he means too much to our program. To have him out there when he’s just not able to function even close to his potential isn’t fair to him.”

Next up for the Cyclones is their third and final intrastate game, a showdown with Iowa on Saturday at Hilton Coliseum.

McDermott said the best thing for his team to do is to forget this loss and turn their focus to the rival Hawkeyes.

“We’ve got an important basketball game on Saturday, and we can’t hang our heads very long over this one,” he said.