Chris Babb scored 26 points to lead Iowa State to a 90-63 victory over Rice Saturday in the final round of the South Padre Invitational.

Three other players reached double figures for the Cyclones (5-1), who used a balanced attack to put away the Owls (4-2) in the second half.

Tyrus McGee scored 17, Scott Christopherson and Chris Allen added 10 apiece, and Melvin Ejim had 8 points and 11 rebounds.

Tamir Jackson led Rice with 13 points.

Iowa State led 37-28 at halftime and then broke the game open after the break with some hot shooting. Babb finished 7-of-11 on 3-pointers, including one with 14:26 left in the second that stretched the Cyclones’ lead to 54-39.

The lead ballooned to 20 five minutes later on a pair of McGee free throws that made it 65-45.

Rice never got within single digits in the final 19:42 of the contest.

The Owls won their first four games by an average of 24.8 points but dropped two straight in South Padre to teams from the state of Iowa. Northern Iowa beat Rice on Friday.