Chelsea Poppens has a reputation as

one of the toughest posts in the Big 12, and it was on display

Wednesday night against Oklahoma State in a 73-52

victory.

Combine Poppens with Anna Prins in

the post, and 20 points from Hallie Christofferson, and the

Cowgirls did not stand a chance. 

The trio of ISU posts combined for

47 of the 72 points in the game and 29 of the 45

rebounds.

“This is a team that created a lot

of matchup problems for us,” said OSU coach Jim Littell. “When they

have the ability to take their bigs away from the basket and shoot

the three, it’s really a tough matchup.”

Poppens struggled from the field,

going 4-13 but made up for it on the rebounding side with 16. That

gave Poppens her ninth double-double of the season and made this

game her fifth of the season with at least 15 rebounds. 

Littell did not hesitate to say what

he thought of Poppens.

“She’s my favorite player in the

league,” Littell said. “She plays the game the way it ought to be

played. She plays the game with respect. … She competes all the

time, plays extremely hard; she gets what she deserves. You can

tell that’s a kid that puts a lot of time into the game and gets

every ounce of ability out of herself and you’ve just got to love

players that play the game like she does.”

The Cyclones (12-8, 3-6 Big 12) and

Cowgirls (12-6, 4-5) battled back and forth in the first half, but

the second half was an entirely different story. 

Iowa State won the second half 43-24

and opened it on a 8-2 run that grew into a 25-6 run over the first

12 minutes. That run started with a pair of back-to-back threes

from senior Lauren Mansfield which sparked the Cyclones

offense. 

Coach Bill Fennelly was happy with

the play of his posts as well.

“I thought collectively by far the

best game by our post players,” Fennelly said. “They demanded the

ball, scored and rebounded. I thought they were really good. All

three of them were really good.”

Prins said she did not try any new

post moves that worked tonight. 

She knew, however, with Poppens

struggling from the field, she and Hallie were ready to step

up.

“It’s going to happen occasionally,”

Prins said of Poppens’ struggles. “Someone else has to step up;

whether it’s me [or someone else], Hallie played a great game. I

think at times we played really well together. We knew we were

quicker post players so we could run the floor, so that’s what we

tried to do.”

After an 0-5 start to Big 12 play,

Iowa State is 3-1, with the loss coming on a last-second defeat to

Texas A&M. The coaches made a poster and gave the player a

mindset that they started 0-0. 

They are pleased with how it’s

started. 

“I told our players before the game,

this will be a month that defines us,” Fennelly said. “How hard we

play, what we do, how we handle the adversity of being 2-6. You

have to handle those things. We knew what we were going to get, but

a good start to the month for sure.”