Freshman guard Will Blalock led the Cyclone scoring barrage with 22 points Wednesday night as the ISU men’s basketball team downed Texas A&M 91-82.

Jake Sullivan and Jared Homan each chipped in 20 points in Iowa State’s highest point total of the season.

Fourteen of Homan’s points were free throws as he struggled from the floor, making only 3 of 9 shots, largely due to the still very visibly ankle sprain he suffered against Iowa. ISU head coach Wayne Morgan said Homan’s effort through his injury was nothing short of valiant. “I can’t say enough good things about the effort of Jared Homan,” Morgan said. “He’s [still] very hurt.”

Homan said as the game started he forgot about the pain.

“A couple minutes into the game it got loosened up a little bit,” Homan said. “[In] the flow of the game, you don’t even think about it, you just try to focus on basketball and getting a win.”

The Cyclones only shot 48 percent from the floor, but scored 37 of their points from the free throw line on a ridiculous 53 attempts, 42 of which came in the second half. Iowa State’s 53 attempts were just one shy of the Cyclone record for attempts in a game.

“If we were a horrific free throw shooting team, we could have lost that game with the game plan they brought at us in the second half,” Morgan said.

For the first time this season, Iowa State was able to rebound from a slow start after trailing 36-33 at halftime. The Cyclones only shot 40 percent and were out-rebounded 22-16 in the first half.

“I think in the first half we had a Baylor hangover,” Homan said. “I don’t know if we were feeling sorry for ourselves or what but we definitely snapped out of it at halftime.”

The Cyclones came out firing in the second half, jumping out to a 40-36 lead they would not lose, building their lead to as many as 12 points. “We got off to a slow start towards the beginning,” Morgan said. “[But] the last 20 minutes of the game were our best 20 minutes of the game. We really started to turn around at the end of the first half.”

Freshman Curtis Stinson was the only other Cyclone in double figures with 14 points. Leading the way for the Aggies, was Jesse King with 21 points, largely due to his five 3-pointers. Antoine Wright had 14 of his 17 points in the first half, with his only points in the second half coming in the waning seconds of the game.

“We concentrated on [Wright] by not letting him go up and shoot [in the second half],” Morgan said. “He’s a very good player.”

The Aggies’ leading scorer heading into the game, Wright shot only 6 of 20 from the floor.

Iowa State resumes action at 3 p.m. Saturday as they will take on Kansas at Hilton Coliseum.