Iowa State 73, Drake 46

Coach Wayne Morgan said his team would press a lot this year. He wasn’t kidding.

The ISU full-court press wreaked havoc on the Bulldogs, causing them to cough it up 25 times — leading to 26 ISU points off Drake turnovers.

“I don’t think they expected us to press for 40 minutes, and that helped us,” Morgan said. “It cut back their intensity.”

The Cyclones were led by Curtis Stinson’s 17 points and career-high 12 assists.

“Curtis Stinson is an anomaly — he’s a once-in-a-lifetime player,” Morgan said.

“Enjoy him while we have him.”

Cyclone Challenge Game 1: Iowa State 57, Northern Colorado 39

In game one, the Cyclones managed to salvage a win, even though Stinson went 0-9 from the field in the first half. Stinson finished the game with only seven points on 3-of-16 shooting.

“I’m hopeful that we’ll never again see Curtis go 0-for-9 for a half,” Morgan said. “I don’t think that’s probably happened to him since third grade.”

Again, the Cyclone defense was the story, forcing 26 Northern Colorado turnovers. The Bears shot only 33 percent from the field and had a seven-minute scoring drought in the second half.

“The definition of having a pretty good team is a team that can win when you don’t score, but you play good defense,” Morgan said.

Will Blalock led the team in scoring with 17 points.

Game 2: Iowa State 62, Bucknell 55

Stinson wasn’t happy with his performance in game one; maybe that’s why he scored 20 points in the championship game Saturday night.

But it wasn’t an easy win for the Cyclones, with Bucknell climbing to within four points in the second half. Morgan said Bucknell is a much better team than some thought.

“This was a great game for us, because it’s a tournament-level game against a tournament-level team,” Morgan said.

Jared Homan recorded his second straight double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds. Homan was named the Cyclone Challenge MVP. Stinson and Blalock joined Homan on the Cyclone Challenge All-Tournament team.

Iowa State heads to Cedar Falls on Wednesday to take on Northern Iowa.