Iowa State prepares to battle Oklahoma State again
Miranda Cantrell/Iowa State Daily
Senior forward Hallie Christofferson celebrates after making a rebound shot during the game against the Texas Longhorns at Hilton Coliseum Saturday, Feb. 22. Christofferson had 20 points and 11 rebounds for her seventh double-double of the season. After a slow start, the Cyclones offense picked up and went neck-and-neck with the Longhorns until they hit a 13-0 run to pick up the lead. Freshman guard Seanna Johnson looks to score during the game against the Texas Longhorns at Hilton Coliseum on Saturday, Feb. 22. After a slow start, the Cyclones offense picked up and went neck-and-neck with the Longhorns until they hit a 13-0 run to pick up the lead. They took the win 81-64, putting Iowa State at 18-8 and 7-8 in the Big 12.
February 26, 2014
The last time it played Oklahoma State, the ISU women’s basketball team was in a very different situation.
The then-No. 11 Cyclones were on a 14-game winning streak and off to the best start in school history but the Cowgirls put an end to all of that. Oklahoma State handed Iowa State its first loss of the season on Jan. 11.
The Cyclones (18-8, 7-8 Big 12) went on to drop two-thirds of the games they played since that loss and fell out of the top 25 soon after. Now, Iowa State will face Oklahoma State (21-5, 10-5 Big 12) Wednesday, for the second time this season.
“Probably the biggest difference is we’ve lost a lot more games since then. But Oklahoma State, like I said, is a really hard matchup because they can score from different points. We’ve always had a hard time figuring out who to put on whom. Defensively, they always do something unique to us,” said ISU coach Bill Fennelly.
In the last matchup, the Cowgirls held the Cyclones to just 62 points and committed 17 turnovers. Before that game, Iowa State had never scored less than 71 points in each of its 14 wins.
But scoring was not the Cyclones only problem during that game. OSU point guard Tiffany Bias put up 22 points, four assists and three rebounds against Iowa State. She shot almost 73 percent on the game and went 5-of-6 from the free throw line.
“Tiffany Bias, their point guard, is a great player,” Fennelly said. “She’s playing like a senior point guard who doesn’t want her career to end is playing. They’re a legitimate high-level Big 12 team for a reason,” Fennelly said.
But Bias is not the only OSU guard that could cause problems for Iowa State. Brittney Martin is second to Bias in both points (11.8) and assists (2.1) per game for Oklahoma State.
That’s not to say Martin does not lead a few categories of her own. The sophomore is first in the Big 12 in steals with more than two per game. She also leads the Cowgirls in rebounding — averaging almost eight per game.
In Oklahoma State’s win against Iowa State earlier in the season, Martin had four steals and racked up 14 points.
“Their guards are very versatile. They’re very quick and they have the size that they can post guards up to, and so that creates a mismatch for them too. But also in a sense that we’re quick too, and we can get to the basket. We bring things just as well as they do,” said senior forward Hallie Christofferson.
Iowa State will take on Oklahoma State at 7 p.m. Feb. 26 in Stillwater, Okla.
