Freshman forward Hallie Christofferson paced Iowa State to a 61-40 victory over Wartburg on Sunday. 

Iowa State had a slow first half and trailed 29-25 at halftime before pushing the tempo and pulling away in the second half. Christofferson finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds off the bench.

Although the past two games have just been exhibition games, two freshman have stepped up and led the team in both games. 

Coach Bill Fennelly has a young team with just one senior, so the contribution of freshmen is going to be key for the Cyclones this season.

“[Christofferson] always plays hard, she’s long and she’s athletic,” Fennelly said. “I think she’s someone that’s versatile. Her and [Chelsea Poppens] are our two best offensive rebounders. She knows how to win and she’s very calm.”

Iowa State came out flat in the first half and allowed the Knights to do whatever they wanted offensively.

The Cyclones also got out-hustled to rebounds a number of times in the first half. Fennelly talked to his team at halftime about what needed to be fixed.

“I think we just needed to step it up, obviously,” said senior guard Kelsey Bolte. “We didn’t come ready to play in the first half, so at halftime we had a little talk and came out ready to play. We did a lot better guarding and got the ball in the post more.”

Bolte scored seven points, grabbed three boards and had one assist. Amanda Zimmerman helped out on the glass with seven rebounds and 10 points. 

Iowa State had a significant size advantage with Zimmerman, Anna Prins and Poppens in the post, even though Poppens was limited due to foul trouble. The Cyclones got to the line just eight times and only made two free throws.

For Fennelly, this is a sign that his team was not aggressive enough.

“Eight free-throw attempts in any game isn’t good enough,” Fennelly said. “That shows you’re not attacking the basket. We’ve got to do a better job of that and that’s something we work on all the time, and we have to continue to work on that.”

The Cyclones weren’t much better from behind the arc. They shot just 3-for-25 from the 3-point line. That led to more work being done in the paint, where Iowa State outscored Wartburg 48-8.

Being on the same page is another improvement the Cyclones need to make before their season-opener against Western Illinois on Saturday.

“The biggest thing was just communicating with each other,” Zimmerman said. “It seemed like in the first half, we were all just like dead and not saying anything.”

Bolte said communication can come down to some of the smallest and simplest parts of the game. In order to communicate effectively, everyone needs to know her role on the floor.

“We were in the wrong defense one time, coming out of a timeout,” Bolte said. “That’s just based on [Fennelly] communicating with us and us communicating with each other, and we didn’t do that. By the time we play this weekend, I’m sure we’ll be a lot better off.”