On a night when Jake Sullivan, the Cyclone’s leading scorer, made just three of 15 shots, it was up to someone else to step up offensively.

In Tuesday’s 85-78 loss to Boston College, Iowa State kept the game close using sparks from sophomore Jared Homan.

Not only did Homan lead Iowa State in scoring, he helped carry the team in the early part of the game both emotionally and athletically, ending the first half with a team high of 10 points and four rebounds.

“Jared worked real hard. If the team had mirrored Jared, we would have been fine,” head coach Larry Eustachy said. “He probably worked harder than anyone tonight. He’s got to be real consistent with that kind of effort.”

Homan finished the game with 18 points on 8-of-13 shooting. He pulled down 11 boards — six offensive — and had two blocked shots.

“I didn’t do anything different,” Homan said. “It was the guards finding me — I was able to finish. We watched the tape and they didn’t block out extremely well, so I knew I had to go get a couple offensive rebounds on them.”

Fellow big-man Jackson Vroman complemented Homan down low with 14 points and 12 rebounds, also grabbing six offensive and racking up three blocked shots of his own.

“They come into practice and give it 110 percent every day,” point guard Tim Barnes said. “They have no choice but play hard in a game. How you play in practice is how you play in the game and they just go balls out in the game, balls out in practice. They just showed up today.”

As Homan made numerous big plays down low throughout the game, he would often end it with a pump of the fist accompanied by some vocal emotion, igniting a Hilton Coliseum crowd of 12,955.

“His emotion gets us very pumped up,” Barnes said. “Once you see him, you have no choice but get pumped up. It’s like an energy boost. I’m just glad we have him.”

Through his on-court emotion, Homan is hoping he can provide the sparks and intensity needed to win close games. He does consider himself a floor leader.

“Maybe not so much verbally, but my actions on the court,” Homan said of his leadership.

“I try and get people fired up. Give them a pat on the butt, encourage them, give them a high five, make a hustle play, anything to keep the spark going on the team and get some momentum going our way.”

Though the loss was Iowa State’s first of the season and a disappointing blow to the team, Homan said his performance did help build his confidence.

“I’m going to continue doing my thing,” Homan said.

“I know that I’m not the leading scorer on this team — that’s other people’s job. But if I need to I’ll step up and do that. I have to do my role.”

Homan is hoping other guys can continue to step up on a more consistent basis.

“If we get everybody going right at the same time, we can be a very lethal team,” Homan said. “It’s nice for other people to step up when some guy is not having the greatest game and people are taking away shots. You got to have other people step up and take the game over a little bit.”