Iowa State suffered its second straight loss Wednesday night against Kansas in Lawrence, 86-85 in overtime. This loss marked another road loss in heartbreaking fashion.

Senior shooting guard Kelsey Bolte hit a three-pointer with 35 seconds left to tie the game at 78-78. That shot eventually forced overtime. Iowa State (16-7, 4-5 in Big 12) was down by 15 at one point in the second half and battled back.

Iowa State held an 85-84 lead and had possession of the ball with seven seconds remaining in the overtime, but Bolte received the inbound pass and lost the ball out of bounds off her foot.

The Jayhawks’ (16-8, 3-7) Carolyn Davis took advantage and hit a shot while getting fouled to put Kansas up by one with 2.3 seconds remaining. Davis missed the free throw, but Iowa State was unable to get off a shot before the final buzzer sounded. 

ISU coach Bill Fennelly felt execution is key down the stretch in close games such as these.

“It comes down to making the plays that you have to make in tough times,” Fennelly said during a post-game interview on 1430 KASI. “To Kansas’s credit they made a play at the end.”

Davis had an excellent game for the Jayhawks, as she posted 31 points and eight rebounds. She shot 11-of-17 from the field and 9-15 from the free throw line. Monica Engelman and Angel Goodrich chipped in 12 and 11 points for Kansas.

As a team, they had one of their better shooting performances of the season. The Jayhawks shot 54 percent from the field and 50 percent from behind the three-point.

Bolte finished the game with a team-high 26 points to go with her six rebounds. Sophomore forward Chelsea Poppens finished with 21 points, 14 in the first half, and six rebounds. 

Freshman forward Hallie Christofferson had another sold performance with 21 points and eight rebounds.

“We’re going to find out a lot about our team and how tough we are,” Fennelly said on KASI. “We have four tough games in eight days, and who knows if Anna is going to be able to play?”

Iowa State was without starting center Anna Prins due to a knee injury.

With Prins not being able to play, Poppens took control in the first half, seemingly scoring at will inside on Davis. Her being out also caused the other players to feel the need to fill the void.

“We all knew that we all needed to step up more since there’s less of us,” Poppens said KASI. “We were supposed to stay out of foul trouble. We didn’t but, other than that, I think we took on the responsibility pretty well.”