Iowa State knew it had a lot of work heading into this season.

With six seniors gone from a year ago, including four starters and some of the most accomplished players in school history, nobody expected instant success.

Sunday night, Iowa State found out exactly how much work it still has to do.

Iowa State outlasted Division II Emporia State Sunday, 77-68, in an exhibition game that left Iowa State’s players and coaches unhappy.

“I obviously wasn’t pleased with the way we played,” said coach Steve Prohm.

Iowa State hit just 25 of its 55 field goal attempts (45.5 percent) for the game. Only two players — senior guard Donovan Jackson and redshirt junior guard Nick Weiler-Babb — shot better than 50 percent from the floor.

Most of Jackson’s game-high 20 points came late in the first half.

“I needed to get myself going,” Jackson said. “That’s the only way I can play.”

Jackson scored the final 13 points of the first half for Iowa State, including a floater as time expired. He finished with four of Iowa State’s five made three-pointers.

The rest of the Cyclones shot just 1-for-13 from beyond the arc. Besides shooting, Iowa State wasn’t moving the ball well offensively.

Iowa State is used to having great guards. Last year, All-Big 12 first-team guard Monté Morris led the way with 6.2 assists per game.

Sunday, the seven Cyclones who saw the court combined for just nine assists, a feat Morris accomplished 26 times by himself over the last four years.

“It’s pretty stagnant,” Jackson said of the offense. “We just got to start moving the ball and getting rotations and stuff like that. Sooner or later it will start clicking.”

Weiler-Babb did his part offensively, scoring 12 points and chipping in with a game-high four assists as well. Still, he wasn’t satisfied, and he knows Iowa State has a lot to improve.

“We’ve got a lot to work on,” Weiler-Babb said. “Offense isn’t gonna be perfect. Defense isn’t gonna be perfect. But the hustle plays, we can’t give up. They were getting to the ball before us, they were getting offensive rebounds, they were just out-hustling us.”

Some of the problems may be alleviated sooner rather than later. Iowa State, as mentioned before, played just seven guys out of the 10 eligible players on the roster for this season.

The three others — senior Hans Brase along with freshmen Terrence Lewis and Cameron Lard — could return as soon as Friday. Lewis and Lard did not play Sunday due to a coach’s decision while Brase is recovering from an ACL injury suffered last year.

“Lard provides a rim presence,” Prohm said. “Some of those shots they were getting — weak-side layups — I mean, he had five blocks against Nebraska [in last week’s scrimmage].”

Prohm said Lewis will provide a shooting spark when he possibly makes his Iowa State debut Friday, and after a 5-for-20 performance on 3-pointers against Emporia State, that will be a much needed bonus.

In the end, however, Prohm wasn’t surprised by his team’s performance. It’s a young team — only two seniors played Sunday, and three of the seven players who played were making their Iowa State debuts.

Additionally, due to three players sitting out, Iowa State was playing guys out of position. Starting forward Solomon Young got into foul trouble early and only played 18 minutes. The Cyclones finished the game with five guards on the floor.

So while there’s plenty to work on, Iowa State is bound to get better with experience. And even though this game didn’t count for the team’s record, there were positives to take away, too.

“This was good,” Prohm said. “I knew this game was coming, I knew this was gonna be a game like this tonight. It’s good for us and we’ll grow from it and learn and get ready, and get Iowa State better this week.”