Nervousness and the month of March come hand in hand for college basketball teams all across the country.

Luckily for No. 2-seeded Iowa State, the nerves lasted only about the first four minutes of its game Saturday night, March 9, 2013, when the Cyclones defeated No. 7-seeded Kansas, 77-62 in the second round of the Big 12 Championship at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.

ISU coach Bill Fennelly could sense his team’s nervousness from the start of the game against the Jayhawks explaining Iowa State’s lack of offense for the first four minutes of the contest.

“They were trying to get in the flow of the game, and I don’t think we got a shot for three minutes,” Fennelly said at a news conference following Saturday’s game. “We had 12 turnovers at halftime, and we did not have another turnover until about three minutes to go in the game.”

Iowa State turned the ball over on six of its first eight possessions and had trouble finding any offensive rhythm. After a Chelsea Poppens layup with 16:11 minutes left in the first half, the Cyclones went on a 15-8 run putting them up 15-14.

It was a lead Iowa State would not surrender for the remainder of the night. Hallie Christofferson scored 12 of the Cyclones’ first 20 points and finished with 23 points on the night. She was 8-of-8 from the free-throw line.

“Once we hit one shot, everybody just spread the energy around and gets that confidence that they see the ball going in the basket and they can do the same thing,” Christofferson said.

That contagious shooting continued on Sunday afternoon for Iowa State when it defeated No. 3-seeded Oklahoma, 79-60 at American Airlines Center in the Big 12 Championship semifinal. It was the third win for the Cyclones against the Sooners this season after Iowa State swept Oklahoma in the regular season.

“Our team, just like yesterday, did exactly what each of them individually need to do and that turned into a collective effort,” Fennelly said. “Obviously Anna’s performance was one for the ages that will go down as one of the greatest individual performances by an Iowa State player.”

Prins exploded offensively for the Cyclones earning a career-high 32 points and grabbing eight rebounds. After the game at the news conference, Prins mentioned she “didn’t even know what happened out there.”

“I was feeling good but I think I was just playing the game,” Prins said. “And I think things were really starting to flow for the team as a whole. I was just getting opportunities, I guess.”

Iowa State will face No. 1-seeded Baylor on Monday night, March 11, 2013, for the Big 12 Championship at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. Tipoff for the game is at 7 p.m. and will be televised on FSN.