Completed Event: Men's Basketball at #23 Creighton (Exhibition) on October 17, 2025 , Loss , 58, to, 71
Final
Men's Basketball
58
#23 Creighton (Exhibition)
71
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Iowa State University Athletics
Friday, November 27
Chicago, Ill.
5:00 PM
Iowa State
6-0
65
vs
54
Saint Louis (Chicago Invitational)
4-1
1
2
F
St. Louis
27
27
54
Iowa State
30
35
65
Iowa State Remains Unbeaten, Defeats Saint Louis
11.27.2009 | Men's Basketball
CHICAGO ? Iowa State put the clamps down on defense, holding Saint Louis to 35.5 percent shooting in the second period to break open a close game in a 65-54 win Friday night at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago.
ISU won the battle of unbeatens to improve to 6-0 on the season, but more importantly advances to the championship game of the Chicago Invitational tomorrow night at 7 p.m. ISU will play Northwestern, which upset No. 23 Notre Dame, in the title bout. The game will be shown live on the Big Ten Network.
The Cyclones were led by Craig Brackins, who tallied 16 points, and Diante Garrett, who scored a season-high 16 points. Lucca Staiger added 10 points, including two big second-half 3-pointers.
"We found a way to win tonight and sometimes it is not pretty," ISU head coach Greg McDermott said. "They obviously weren't going to let Lucca (Staiger) and Scott (Christopherson) sit back and hit threes and we found a way to grind it out. We got some defensive rebounds in the second half, which led to some transition baskets."
It was a tough-nosed game from the beginning, as both teams made it difficult to score points. ISU clung to an 11-9 lead with 12:15 left in the first half. Craig Brackins tallied eight of ISU's first 11 points.
The Cyclones found it hard to find the basket, hitting just 8-of-26 shots to connect on 30.8 percent from the field with 3:27 left in the half. However, ISU still led 24-21, thanks to forcing seven SLU turnovers.
ISU went into the break up 30-27. Brackins, Staiger and Marquis Gilstrap sat the final four minutes due to foul trouble. All three picked up two fouls. Brackins had 10 first-half points to lead all players.
The Billikens came out with two-straight buckets to re-take the lead at 31-30. However, ISU responded with a 13-0 run to go ahead 43-31 with 13:15 left in the game. Brackins scored five points in the key Cyclone run.
SLU's Femi John and Willie Reed ended the run with two-straight buckets to cut the lead back down to single digits (43-35). But the Cyclones countered again. Jamie Vanderbeken came up with a key block that set up an easy fast-break lay-in for Scott Christopherson to push the Cyclone lead back up to 10 points. Moments later Staiger hit a pair of treys and Vanderbeken knocked down a bomb, and suddenly it was a 54-37 Cyclone lead with 9:08 left in the contest.
ISU made its free-throws down the stretch to seal the victory, hitting a season-high 78.9 percent (15-19) from the charity stripe.
ISU shot a season-low 37.9 percent from the floor and were outrebounded (39-38) for the first time this season. But the Cyclones forced 15 turnovers and the Billikens made just 1-of-16 of their 3-pointers. ISU is now 30-2 in the Greg McDermott era when holding an opponent to under 60 points.
Team Stats
SLU
IS
FG%
.411
.379
3FG%
.063
.429
FT%
.583
.789
RB
39
38
TO
15
11
STL
3
1
Game Leaders
Pts
16
FGM
5
3FGM
1
FTM
5
Pts
16
FGM
6
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Pts
11
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
5
Pts
10
FGM
3
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's BasketballF
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballF
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's BasketballF
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