Daily Staff

The ISU women’s basketball team extended its winning streak to seven-straight games with a 76–51 win over in-state rival Northern Iowa on Sunday.

The Cyclones (8–1) shot 59.2 percent, a season-best total, and were led by senior guard Alison Lacey’s 23 points and 10 rebounds in the win over the Panthers (4–6).

“Our guard play was really good, and that was the difference in the game,” ISU coach Bill Fennelly said in a news release. “We shot the ball really well. If we would have hit a few more layups, [Lacey} probably has another triple-double. We shot it well enough to overcome some sloppy play. We found a way to win the game.”

Lacey posted her fourth double-double of the season, while freshman Amanda Zimmerman shined by posting career highs 11 points, six rebounds, four blocked shots and four assists.

This was the first time this season that Lacey had led the Cyclones in both points and rebounds. However, it was the fourth time in the last six games that the Canberra, Australia native led the Cyclones in scoring.

The Cyclones jumped out to a 9–2 lead and wouldn’t look back, never trailing in the game.

After the Panthers cut the lead to just 9–5, Iowa State steadily increased the margin to 38–21 at the end of the first half.

The second half was more of the same, as the Panthers trimmed the ISU lead down to 10 points with 17:29 to go in the game, but Iowa State bounced back to 21 point lead with 11:57 left and got by up as many as 29 in the second half.

While the Cyclones shot 59.2 percent, they held the Panthers to just 30.2 percent from the field, including just 5-of-25 shooting from three-point range. Iowa STate shot 10-of-19 from long range.

Iowa State also outrebounded the Panthers by a maragin of 41 to 26.

The Cyclones struggled, however, with free throw shooting and turnovers. They managed only 8-of-14 shooting from the charity stripe and turned the ball over 18 times to Northern Iowa’s 10. On the plus side, though, just two of the ISU turnovers came in the second half.

Northern Iowa was led by Jacqui Kalin and Lizzie Boeck who each scored 14 points in the losing effort. Kim Wypiszynski also scored 11 points for the Panthers.

Next up for Iowa State will be the Cyclone Challenge that includes matchups with North Carolina A&T on Dec. 29 and Fairfield on Dec. 30.