Three of Iowa State’s five starters finished Wednesday night’s game with four fouls. A disjointed battle against Oklahoma at Hilton Coliseum led to reliability on the bench of the Cyclone women’s basketball team.

A total of 50 fouls were called during the game, allowing for numerous starts and stops, and made it difficult for either team to find a rhythm. Senior point guard Alison Lacey’s second foul of the night left her on the bench for the remaining five minutes of the first half. Junior guard Kelsey Bolte also had two fouls in the first, resulting in underclassmen guards stepping into the shadows of the two guards.

“It’s probably the best our bench has played in a long time,” said coach Bill Fennelly. “Our bench played 66 minutes which is 30 percent of the game. They had 14 points and 15 boards, which was outstanding.”

Leading the brigade off the bench was freshman guard Jessica Schroll. After struggling against Texas on Saturday, the Midland, Mich., native dedicated the next days of practice to improve on all aspects of her game.

It was clear against the Sooners.

“I don’t like to single people out but Jessica Schroll was someone that I think really impacted the game,” Fennelly said. “We all know what happened to [Schroll] Saturday. You didn’t see what happened to [Schroll] Monday [and] Tuesday at practice.”

Schroll snatched a season-high 11 rebounds against the Sooners to led the Cyclones, and committed zero turnovers in her 32 minutes of lay. Schroll’s final rebound came with 13 seconds left in the game after Oklahoma’s Jasmine Hartman missed a layup that would have put the Sooners within four points.

“To her credit she came out and played with the energy and effort that this team needed,” Fennelly said of Schroll’s performance. “[I’m] very proud of her for doing that because most young people out there around would not have acted that way or played that way considering what she’s gone through the last three days.”

Under the basket, the Cyclone bench was also a factor as Iowa State was led by freshman post Chelsea Poppens’ six boards in the first half, out rebounding the Sooners 23-13 overall, including 10 rebounds on the offensive end. Also under the basket, freshman Anna Prins’ 15 points was key to the keeping the Cyclone lead in the second half.

“We did everything we had to do at the time we had to do it and I’m very proud of the kids for it,” Fennelly said.

Five minutes into the game the score was tied at eight, and after two missed shots and two offensive rebounds by Iowa State, the Cyclones took a two point lead, displaying early the importance of ripping the ball down after a missed shot. Rebounding wasn’t the only factor that led to the downfall of No. 11 Oklahoma in Hilton on Wednesday, however.

Iowa State’s zone defense held the Sooners to a dismal 25 percent from the field in the first half. Coming into the game, Oklahoma had averaged a 43.3 percent clip from the field in conference play.

“The zone was forced upon us a little earlier because of Alison Lacey’s foul trouble,” Fennelly said. “We wanted to play man early, not let someone get hot and then someone pack it in and help.”

Defensively, Iowa State pulled down 24 boards over the Sooners’ 14 offensive boards. Bolte led the team with 3 steals, including one right after a timeout when Iowa State was down by one point.

“We haven’t seen [a zone] much and we didn’t have a very good rhythm and our shot selection wasn’t very good, our movement wasn’t very good,” said Oklahoma head coach Sherri Coale. “And we didn’t make shots. We had some good shots you just got to make them.”

Oklahoma hit only six of its 24 shots in the first half and made on two free throws. The Sooners made a solid effort in the second to grasp more rebounds, finishing with 36, just one behind Iowa State’s total on the night.

“We didn’t block out, gave up too many offensive rebounds, too many free throws, we didn’t execute against the zone,” Coale said. “We did not deserve to win that basketball game.”