Cyclones shoot their way past Nebraska

Travis J. Cordes

LINCOLN, Neb. — As with nearly all Bill Fennelly-coached teams, it’s a given that you’re going to get a healthy dosage of shots from behind the three-point line. So when his players shoot at a higher percentage from long distance than from the rest of the floor, they’re going to be awfully difficult to beat.

The ISU women’s basketball team sunk seven of its first 10 shots from behind the arc Wednesday night in Lincoln, Neb., and rode its hot shooting to an 85-66 victory over the Cornhuskers.

“You don’t win many road games in this league by 20 points,” Fennelly said. “Overall we probably played offensively better than we have in a long time. When you shoot 57 percent, you’re going to win games in this league or anywhere, and we haven’t seen that in a while.”

The team was 7-of-11 (63.6 percent) from long range and 19-of-32 (59.4 percent) in the first half, and finished the game in similar fashion at 34-of-59 (57.1 percent) and 10-of-17 (58.8 percent).

Five different players knocked down a trey for No. 20 Iowa State (14-5, 2-3 in Big 12) in what may have been the team’s most balanced and prolific half of the season. The Cyclones scored 45 points and every player that touched the court was in the scorebook at halftime.

The numbers from three-point land were complimented well by Iowa State’s inside game, which gave the offense a dynamic array of scoring options.

Fennelly said it had been quite some since he had seen his team play such a complete game offensively during Big 12 play.

“We had great balance,” Fennelly said. “Every kid that played scored and we only turned the ball over 12 times in a game played at a pretty good pace. We’ve lived and died so much lately with Kelsey Bolte carrying us that the last game we played we had four baskets in the post. Tonight we were obviously much, much better.”

Bolte still led the Cyclones with 26 points and nine rebounds while Anna Prins followed also with nine rebounds and a career-high 23 points. Point guard Lauren Mansfield reached double figures with 10 points and added five assists.

A senior from Ida Grove, Bolte is now the only player in the Big 12 that has scored 20 points or more in all five conference games, averaging 24 points in that stretch.

The assertive win ended a two-game skid for the Cyclones, who had the most points during regulation in a conference game since their 86-71 win over Colorado in Boulder on Jan 21, 2006.

“We played great tonight,” Bolte said. “Having a game like this makes you forget about all the bad games you’ve had. We just had a great offensive flow.”

Iowa State now moves on to face Missouri (10-10, 2-4) at 2 p.m. Saturday at Hilton Coliseum.