For the Cyclone men’s basketball team, Tuesday’s win over Savannah State proved to be costly.

Point guard Jake Sullivan sprained his medial collateral ligament in his right knee and could miss up to four to six weeks.

“That’s kind of what it’s looking like right now,” Sullivan said. “But I’m going to do everything I can to be back sooner.”

The 6-foot, 1-inch Sullivan injured his knee contesting a shot early in the first half of the Cyclones’ 64-39 victory.

“I came around a screen to contest a shot,” Sullivan explained. “The way I landed, it just didn’t feel right.”

He said the injury had nothing to do with his move from shooting guard to the point guard position for this season.

“It was just a freak thing,” Sullivan said.

While Sullivan will be out of action, an MRI Wednesday morning showed that he will not have to undergo surgery.

For now the Cyclones will have to win games without arguably their best player.

Sullivan was recently named to the Las Vegas Invitational all-tournament team.

He scored 20 points in three of the Cyclones’ four games during the tournament, including a career-high 22 points in a 77-72 victory over St. Louis.

Sullivan was averaging a team-high 16 points per game and shooting 50 percent from the field (22-44).

Sullivan was also nailing 50 percent of his three-pointers, making 10 of 20.

The Big 12 freshman of the year is closing in on a record at Iowa State, chasing Cyclone great Fred Hoiberg’s mark for consecutive free throws made.

Sullivan is perfect from the foul line, 26-for-26 this season, and stands eight free throws from matching Hoiberg’s record of making 34 consecutive free throws.

The rest of the Cyclones will be back in action Friday in the Tribune Cyclone Challenge in Hilton Coliseum.

Iowa State will face Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

While Sullivan hopes to be back before Iowa State starts its Big 12 play on Jan. 5 at Baylor, he will likely miss two of the Cyclones’ biggest games – at home against Iowa and at Boston College.

“It’s looking kind of grim,” Sullivan said of his chances of playing against the No. 7 Hawkeyes.

Still, Sullivan is upbeat that his team can pick up during his absence.

“I think those guys will do just fine,” Sullivan said. “They will just have to step it up a little more.”