With 18:31 remaining in the second half, freshman forward Chelsea Poppens took a pass from senior guard Alison Lacey and scored her 12th point of the ballgame on a layup.

That basket was Lacey’s fifth assist of the game, but, more importantly, her 500th career assist. Lacey now holds the distinction as being the first player in school history to post 1,500 points, 500 rebounds and 500 assists throughout her career.

“[Lacey’s] one of the most complete players to ever play here,” said coach Bill Fennelly. “She’s impacted the team’s success in a variety of ways. In the kind of way that when our team needed it, especially this year, she’s a scorer, she rebounds and she’s someone who can share the ball. Certainly those are statistics that I don’t know if we’ll have someone like that again.”

There were many questions surrounding Lacey’s status for Saturday’s game versus Missouri. After suffering a concussion, Lacey missed Wednesday’s game and was held out of practice.

However, the injury did not seem to affect her. The Cyclones’ captain scored 17 points and dished out eight assists while playing 38 minutes in the 55–42 win.

“[The concussion] was mild. It wasn’t that bad,” Lacey said. “I maybe could’ve played on Wednesday, but I wasn’t 100 percent and we didn’t want to throw me out there. I just needed an extra day to rest up and get my head back and not have headaches. It felt good tonight to get out there and wear the uniform again.”

And while it was Lacey who reached a career milestone Saturday, it was actually a freshman who took center stage for the Cyclones.

Poppens scored 21 points and grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds. Saturday’s game added to her recent dominance against Missouri. In only two games, Poppens has averaged 17.5 points and 12.5 rebounds per game.

“I’ve been working on my offensive shooting and being more powerful and strong underneath the basket, so I guess it just transferred over to the game,” Poppens said.

Missouri had a difficult time stopping the Cyclones from dominating the offensive glass. Iowa State had 16 offensive rebounds during the game. Both Poppens and senior guard Denae Stuckey combined for 10 of the 16 boards and caused problems for Missouri, which had trouble stopping the Cyclones’ dominance on the offensive glass.

Poppens credits the work with some of Iowa State’s coaches to her success rebounding the ball.

“I’m definitely going more aggressive toward the ball,” Poppens said. “Coach [Jack] Easley and coach [Latoja] Schaben have been working with us posts about boxing out and going straight for the ball because obviously you get rebounds and other people get open.”

With the win, Iowa State is now tied with Texas for third in the Big 12 standings and can still clinch second place in the conference. The rest of the Cyclones’ schedule has them playing Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and Colorado.

Combined, those four teams have a conference record of 17–29, meaning the Cyclones have a realistic shot at clinching one of the higher seeds in the Big 12 tournament.