Sports / Womensbasketball

WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT: Cyclones step up in absence of leading scorer

Iowa State’s Denae Stuckey stepped up in Heather Ezell’s absence. Photo Shing Kai Chan/Iowa State Daily

Travis J. Cordes
March 14, 2009

OKLAHOMA CITY – Nine out of 10 times, Denae Stuckey will probably decline to shoot a wide open 3-pointer.

But with the Cyclones down 50-47 in Friday night’s Big 12 quarterfinal, she got a great look in the corner and decided to pull the trigger. BANG. The junior defensive specialist hit just her second shot of the season from behind the arc to pull the Cyclones even with Texas with just 3:32 left to play.

With senior sharpshooter Heather Ezell sidelined for the game with an injured shooting hand, the Iowa State women knew they had find different options to help them score points, and Stuckey was one of several Cyclones to make big contributions on the offensive end.

“With Heather out of the game, we told Denae that if she was open she had to shoot it,” said ISU coach Bill Fennelly. “Certainly it’s one of those plays that, in these tournaments, keeps you playing. You don’t design it, but it’s just one of those things where instinctively it happens, and certainly it’s not something that was designed by the coaches, but she made the play.”

Stuckey may have been one of the most unlikely candidates to step up and hit that shot for the Cyclones, as she was just 1-for-13 from behind the arc this season and 6-for-45 in her career.

“When Stuckey hit that shot, I thought ‘Oh no, it’s their night,'” said Texas head coach Gail Goestenkors. “That’s just how it felt, because she doesn’t shoot the three. She’s not a great shooter, she’s a great competitor though. And sometimes when you’re a great competitor, you make those shots.”

Also joining in the effort to make up for Ezell’s absence was junior guard Alison Lacey, who made it look like the basket was four feet in diameter during the first half. The Canberra, Australia, native was a perfect 5-for-5 from behind the arc in the first half and scored a game and season-high 25 points while notching nine rebounds and four assists.

Her 5-for-6 (83 percent) performance was the second best percentage in a quarterfinal game in Big 12 Tournament history.

“Heather scores 12 points and plays 35 minutes a game,” Lacey said. “She is emotional and drives our team, so definitely with her out of the game I knew I had to step up, but everyone helped out and did a great job in beating a very good Texas team.”

Sophomore Kelsey Bolte also chipped in 12 points, including a drive into the lane and a five-foot jumper at the 1:04 mark that put the Cyclones up for good.

The Cyclones also lacked Ezell’s scrappy and aggressive mentality on defense, but got a tremendous performance from several players off their bench. The biggest impact off the bench came from freshman Whitney Williams, who averages just over four minutes per game in Big 12 play. The guard played a conference-high 18 minutes on Friday night, and also knocked down her 14th three-point shot of the season in the process.

And Fennelly had to give part of the credit for Williams’ performance to his son Billy, who is an assistant basketball coach at Northwestern.

“My son called me tonight and said that if I played Whitney over 15 minutes we would win,” said Fennelly. “Whit did a great job. She made a shot and defended pretty well. Denae also gave us 27 minutes in a starting role and we got some good minutes from other people off the bench. We told them that Heather plays 35 minutes and we’ve got to make it up somewhere. And I thought collectively they did that.”

The injury sustained earlier this week caused Ezell to sit out an entire game for the first time in her four-year career, breaking a streak of 130 consecutive games played. After the game Fennelly said Ezell will not play in Saturday night’s semifinal game against Texas. With the NCAA Tournament a near certain for Iowa State, the training and coaching staffs decided it was in the team’s best interest to keep her healthy for next weekend’s first round matchup.

The Cyclones will surely miss Ezell’s offensive presence against No. 2 Baylor on Saturday afternoon, but on big stages like this, you never know who might step up to hit the biggest shot of the night.

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