Iowa State men's basketball beats Oregon State for first win over Power 5 foe since 2019-20

AMES — It was only the second game of the season, but Friday night’s showdown with Oregon State was looked at as a key barometer for the Iowa State men’s basketball team in new coach T.J. Otzelberger’s first season.

The Cyclones showed they’ve already come quite a ways. 

Iowa State earned a big early season victory by beating Oregon State 60-50 at Hilton Coliseum Friday night. The victory was first for Iowa State over a Power 5 foe since the Cyclones beat Texas Christian on Feb. 25, 2020 at Hilton Coliseum.

With the victory, Iowa State already matched its win total from a season ago when the Cyclones went 2-22 overall, including an 0-18 performance in Big 12 play. That led to coach Steve Prohm losing his job and the Cyclones bringing in Otzelberger, who quickly retooled the roster.

The new look Cyclones, who beat Kennesaw State earlier in the week, showed they still have room for lots of improvement. But there’s already a lot to like for the Cyclones, including a new and improved defense that limited Oregon State, an Elite Eight team a season ago, to 20 first half points. Iowa State's fiery defense held the Beavers in check for most of the night. Oregon State shot just 34% (20-for-59) from the field for the night.

While Iowa State still has plenty of strides to make on the offensive end, the Cyclones got just enough scoring Friday night. Gabe Kalscheur scored 15 points. Izaiah Brockington chipped in with 10 for the Cyclones who used a 7-0 run in the first half to begin to pull away. 

Tommy Birch, the Register's sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He's the 2018 and 2020 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468. Follow him on Twitter @TommyBirch.