When the ISU men’s basketball team takes the floor against Fresno State on Saturday night, a familiar face will suit up against them.

Fresno State guard Donovan Morris was the teammate and roommate of ISU junior guard Curtis Stinson in prep school, and the game will mark their first action against each other.

“He’ll be in town tonight, and I talked to him last night,” Stinson said. “They played Buffalo and I talked to him about the game. I talk to him all the time.

“He’s a slasher,” Stinson said. “He can shoot it. He’s athletic and can get up and down on you.”

Stinson said they seemed to click from the first day when they were matched up as roommates at Winchendon Prep, and likened him to current Cyclone teammate Will Blalock.

“He’s a funny guy,” Stinson said. “He’ll make jokes and get you laughing like Will (Blalock) does.”

The Cyclones are coming off a 68-61 victory over Northern Iowa on Tuesday night and will be looking for their second win in a row against the Bulldogs.

Blalock had 10 assists in the game against Northern Iowa, putting him at sixth in the nation in assists, with 37 on the year.

But there were two much more troubling things to come out of the Cyclones contest with Northern Iowa. One was the fact that the Cyclones were outrebounded by the Panthers 32-27, and the other was the injury to sophomore forward Rahshon Clark.

The Cyclones struggled rebounding the ball and were led by Stinson who had just six boards.

Jiri Hubalek started at center for Iowa State and got just one rebound, while fellow big men Shawn Taggart and Ross Marsden had two each in a combined 40 minutes of play.

“[Rebounding] is the biggest area of improvement that this program needs,” said ISU coach Wayne Morgan. “They’ve done a very good job to try and get to that level so far. But the Big 12 and UNI is a big leap from Ames High School or Mount Zion Academy. It takes time.”

Clark hit the deck hard after attempting a dunk on a putback attempt with a right elbow/wrist injury in the first half.

He returned midway through the second half, but did not score.

“It’s sore; it’s been real sore,” Clark said. “I’m trying so hard to get back on the floor. It aches a lot, but I’ll do whatever it takes to get better.”

Clark connected earlier in the game on a high-flying putback, similar to the one he was attempting when he was injured, which brought the crowd to its feet.

“He doesn’t try to do things he can’t do,” Morgan said. “He’s one of the best I’ve seen in being efficient and staying within the framework of what he’s capable of.”

Clark’s status for Saturday’s game is uncertain, but Stinson said Clark won’t waste any time getting back into the action.

“He’s tough; he’ll bounce back,” Stinson said. “And if it’s up there again, he’ll go right back up there and get it.”

One of the positives from Tuesday’s game was the Cyclones’ performance from 3-point range. The Cyclones hit on 5-of-10 attempts, including a 2-for-2 effort from Stinson and a 3-for-4 effort from Anthony Davis.

“That’s something that will really help our offense,” Clark said. “We were shooting kind of bad and when you’re shooting bad, then teams will play zone. If we want to get them out of zone and play man-to-man, we have to knock down our shots.”

Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday in Hilton Coliseum.