Staiger's Bombs Lead Iowa State Past Drake, 90-70

DES MOINES, Iowa ? Lucca Staiger tallied a career-high 32 points and established a new Iowa State single-game standard for 3-pointers in a game with 10, as the Cyclones cruised to a 90-70 victory at Drake Tuesday night at the Knapp Center.

The win improves ISU's record to 3-0 and ends a three-game losing streak to the Bulldogs. Staiger, who finished the game 10-of-16 from 3-point range, helped the Cyclones drill 14 for the game, one shy of the school mark. Staiger, who also broke the Knapp Center record for treys in a game, beat the old ISU mark of nine set by Dedric Willoughby vs. Kansas in 1997.

“Lucca can shoot,” ISU head coach Greg McDermott said. “He made it look really easy today. We have a lot more weapons than we did last year and it makes it a lot easier for guys on the perimeter like Lucaa and Scott (Christopherson) to get open.”

Thanks to Staiger's hot shooting from the beginning, the Cyclones raced out to a 17-7 lead with 14:17 remaining in the first half. Similar to last year's game, Staiger made his first four 3-point attempts to score 12 of ISU's first 17 points in the game.

Drake battled back with six-straight points by Josh Young to cut the gap to 17-13 at the 12:58 mark. A 12-3 run by ISU improved its lead to 36-22 with 6:20 left before intermission.

Craig Brackins was scoreless through the first 12 minutes of the game, but tallied 11 points the rest of the first half to help ISU take a commanding 51-32 lead at the break.

Scott Chistopherson also gave ISU a huge boost from of the bench, scoring 13 first-half points. Christopherson was 3-of-4 from 3-point range to help the Cyclones make 8-of-14 from downtown in the opening period.

It was the first time the Cyclones scored 50 points in a half since tallying 50 vs. SIU-Edwardsville on Jan. 3, 2009.

The Bulldogs weren't going to let down, quickly cutting the Cyclone lead to 54-41 in the early minutes of the second half after Adam Templeton buried a long trey. But Staiger got hot again, making ISU's first nine points of the second half on three bombs to put ISU back up, 60-41 with 15:43 left in the game.

After the Bulldogs shaved the lead back down to 16 points, Brackins did his work down low, scoring nine of ISU's next 11 points to give the Cyclones a comfortable 71-46 advantage with 11:09 left in the game.

Drake kept battling. The home team went on a 12-2 run behind three treys from Ryan Wedel to make it a 75-62 Cyclone lead with 6:37 remaining in the game. But Staiger had the dagger again, knocking down his eighth trey to hush the frenetic crowd.

He hit his 10th trifiecta in the closing minutes on a high-archer as the shot clock was winding down. He is now 18-of-27 from 3-point range in his two games vs. Drake.

Brackins posted his first 20-point game of the season and his 25th of his career with 22 points and Diante Garrett tied his career-high with 11 dimes. It also ties the Knapp Center record.

“We had the old Craig back again today,” McDermott said. “He's been under a lot of pressure after hurting his knee and it was good to see him smile again.”

ISU outrebounded the Bulldogs, 39-21 and shot 56.3 percent from the field (36-64 FG).

ISU is back in action on Sunday, playing host to Mississippi Valley State at 1 p.m.

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Team Stats

Lucca Staiger

Craig Brackins

Scott Christopherson

Marquis Gilstrap

Players Mentioned

Craig Brackins

Craig Brackins

Diante Garrett

Diante Garrett

Lucca Staiger

Lucca Staiger

Sponsors

Iowa State University Athletics