The ISU men’s basketball team routed Savannah State 64-39 Tuesday at Hilton Coliseum, but the victory could prove to be costly.

Cyclone sophomore point guard Jake Sullivan suffered a medial knee strain early in the game and missed the rest of the contest. The injury happened when Sullivan came down wrong contesting a shot.

Sullivan will have an MRI this morning to see if surgery is needed, and Cyclone coach Larry Eustachy will find out how long he’s going to be without his top player.

“We’re not sure, it may require surgery, but who knows for sure,” Eustachy said. “This is a great win, because we won without our best player. I thought our team rallied together and I’m proud of how the guys responded.”

With Sullivan going down to injury, the rest of the Cyclone squad was forced to pick up the slack and came through.

Tyray Pearson recorded a double with 17 points and 12 rebounds, and Tommie King came off the bench to score 11 points.

“Basically, as a team, we knew we had to step it up as a team collectively and try and work together,” Pearson said.

Sophomore Shane Power took over the point guard duties and played all 40 minutes. Power poured in 18 points and dished out five assists to go along with five defensive rebounds.

“Shane will be our No. 1 at point guard, and he’ll have to play 40 minutes from here on out,” Eustachy said. “He’s like a man of war out there with a hip pointer and stitches in his lips. He looks like George Foreman, but he just battles, and he’s mainstay of what we’re trying to do right now.”

The first half featured poor shooting from both sides as the Cyclones shot just 26.7 percent from the field, but were better than the Tigers, who finished 6-of-25 shooting for 24 percent. The Tigers went through a scoring drought of 11 minutes in the first half

The Tigers were able to increase their shooting percentage to 39 percent in the second half, but still finished the game just 15-of-47 from the field.

While the Tigers struggled with their shot, Eustachy felt the Cyclone defense had a factor in that.

“It was a little bit of both, but a little more of us defensively than them [not making shots],” Eustachy said. “They missed some open shots, but I thought we had something to do with it. I liked our effort.”

The final result of an ugly first half was a 24-14 lead for the Cyclones. The Cyclones opened the game up with an 18-5 run. King scored all 11 of his points in the second half, while Power and Pearson added 11 and 10 respectively.

Coming off a tough road trip to Las Vegas, the friendly confines of Hilton coliseum seemed to be just what the Cyclones needed.

The win upped the Cyclones home-court winning streak to 36, the second best in the nation.

“This was probably the most enjoyable win for me since the win at Kansas last year,” Eustachy said. “You get bothered by the situation with Jake, but you have to be tough minded. We got a long ways to go, but this was one of our better games quality wise.”