Iowa State can now breathe a little sigh of relief. The Cyclones earned their first Big 12 win of the season with a 75-65 victory over the Baylor Bears on Saturday.

Even though there’s a sigh of relief, coach Steve Prohm said this is one of hopefully many to come this season. Here are the three takeaways from Saturday’s much-needed win.

The three guards need to be in sync

Last game against Kansas, freshman guard Lindell Wigginton came out of his low scoring and posted 27 points in the game. Tonight, he scored a career-high 30 points.

Redshirt junior guard Nick Weiler-Babb has been consistently reaching for a triple-double almost every game. He’s averaging 12.5 points, 7.7 rebounds and 7.7 assists per game this season.

Senior guard Donovan Jackson has been a threat for the Cyclones the past two games as he scored 30 points against Oklahoma State and 20 against Kansas. Tonight, he disappeared with only three points, two rebounds and one assist.

Couldn’t have done it without the best fans in the country!!! Thank you #cyclONEnation ✊🏽 you were missed and are greatly appreciated🌪

— Nick Weiler-Babb🏹 (@nickbabb12) January 14, 2018

Prohm said he wants those three to be effective all together in one game similar to the Kansas game. In his mind, if all three of those players can be good at the same time, it’ll be hard for other Big 12 teams to beat Iowa State.

“I saw 1-for-10 and we win by 10, I think that’s growth,” Prohm said. “We just need to get all three of those guys playing well, it’ll happen one day.”

Fast break points

Prohm always tells the media that he wants this team to have a fast tempo throughout the game. That fast pace showed in tonight’s win against Baylor with the amount of fast break points.

Iowa State outscored Baylor 12-0 in fast break points tonight, which Prohm was happy about because that’s proof the Cyclones were able to stop Baylor in the fast break attempts. Even though the Bears are a slow team, it was a big statistic for Iowa State.

Iowa State has had a hard time with scoring fast break points in the past few games, so it was a step in the right direction for the Cyclones.

“We went out and executed tonight,” Lard said. “We need to execute every night.”

Post play was strong from three forwards

Cameron Lard has been the face of the post play throughout the beginning of this season, but Solomon Young and Jeff Beverly showed their dominance tonight as well.

Lard had his usual game with 11 points and nine rebounds. Young contributed to that dominant post play with 11 points and 12 rebounds recording a double-double. 

Young and Lard got into some foul trouble at the early part of the second half resulting in Jeff Beverly having to play some unexpected minutes. Beverly played 10 minutes and scored five points along with two rebounds. 

Prohm was happy with how Beverly contributed in the two forwards’ absences and hopes this performance can improve within the next few games. 

“I wanted to give Jeff an opportunity,” Prohm said. “He made a big jump shot in the first half and then that three.”