No. 4 Iowa State hosts Long Beach State following Sykes’ 23-point outing

By Canadian Press on December 21, 2025.

Long Beach State Beach (3-9, 0-2 Big West) at Iowa State Cyclones (11-0)

Ames, Iowa; Sunday, 6 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Long Beach State visits No. 4 Iowa State after Gavin Sykes scored 23 points in Long Beach State’s 81-78 victory over the Pepperdine Waves.

The Cyclones are 6-0 on their home court. Iowa State is 9-0 in games decided by 10 points or more.

The Beach are 0-6 in road games. Long Beach State is 3-4 when it wins the turnover battle and averages 11.8 turnovers per game.

Iowa State scores 90.5 points, 12.3 more per game than the 78.2 Long Beach State allows. Long Beach State averages 7.1 made 3-pointers per game this season, 0.3 fewer makes per game than Iowa State allows.

TOP PERFORMERS: Joshua Jefferson is scoring 17.5 points per game and averaging 6.7 rebounds for the Cyclones. Milan Momcilovic is averaging 16.4 points and 3.2 rebounds over the last 10 games.

Sykes is shooting 38.0% from beyond the arc with 2.3 made 3-pointers per game for the Beach, while averaging 17.6 points. Petar Majstorovic is shooting 50.5% and averaging 15.0 points over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Cyclones: 10-0, averaging 90.7 points, 30.9 rebounds, 18.3 assists, 11.0 steals and 3.7 blocks per game while shooting 53.3% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 64.6 points per game.

Beach: 3-7, averaging 76.9 points, 28.5 rebounds, 13.3 assists, 7.1 steals and 2.1 blocks per game while shooting 45.7% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 77.9 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

The Associated Press

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