OKLAHOMA CITY – After Iowa State’s 63-57 loss to Baylor, Heather Ezell sits nine three pointers away from becoming the all-time leading three point shooter in Iowa State history, a school known for three point shooting.

Just one day after her first career “did not play”, Ezell checked in during a stoppage play with tape on her injured hand, and 37 minutes later, her team’s tournament run was over. The reason it was over? The answer- three-point shooting- could not be more ironic.

For the senior that was supposed to be enshrined for her fantastic shooting ability, and then the impossible come back from injury to lead Iowa State to victory, Saturday was just not her day. Ezell shot 2-for-9 from 3-point land and 2-for-11 overall.

Instead, the senior that shone was Baylor’s Jessica Morrow, with a game high 24 points, and was on fire from three-point range.

“I can’t speak for [Morrow], but I was a senior one time and played this game, and you don’t want it to end. I think she understand the games are dwindling down and you want to go out in a blaze of glory,” Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said after the game.

Ezell was a scratch from Iowa State’s second round match-up with Texas, and even though Cyclone coach Bill Fennelly announced after the game that she wouldn’t play for the remainder of the tournament, she was a late addition to the lineup. Having been with the team’s training staff almost hourly since the injury, Ezell took her cause to the source of her playing time.

“We were on the on the elevator going up just the two of us in the hotel after shoot-around, and I said, ‘We’ve been together for four years. Look me in the eye and tell me what you want to do,'” Fennelly said.

“She said, ‘Coach, I want to play and I can play,’ and I said ‘OK, you’re going to play.’ She has earned the right to make that decision.”

Iowa State’s shooting woes went further than Ezell’s taped up hand, as the team shot 11-for-24 from three point range, but totaled just 8-for-29 from field goals inside the arc. The team’s emotional leader and hardened veteran Ezell brought the effort, but the shots just wouldn’t fall.

“Their defense-you have to give them a lot of credit. They did a great job,” Ezell said of Baylor. “They knew what to do and they knew how to guard, and they definitely did everything they had to do on the defensive end to stop us.”

Ezell’s tenacity couldn’t get the Cyclones a win, and that strong defensive effort by Baylor was supplanted by a 9-for-14 effort from three point range from the Bears. Senior Jessica Morrow, who had shown the ability to shoot all season, but hadn’t gotten the opportunity to fire at will took advantage of a balanced Iowa State defense, shooting 6-for-8 from three point land and finishing with 24 points.

“Jessica Morrow has proven the player she has been and should have been recognized as. This is the third game in a row Jess stepped up, and she hit shots that seniors hit,” said Baylor point guard Jhasmin Player.

Morrow used her six-foot frame to extend over Iowa State’s smaller guards on her jump shots, hitting three big 3-pointers in the last 5:04 of the game.

“Sometimes, the other person is just better,” Fennelly said. “And when we made a defensive mistake and left her open, [Morrow] made it. That’s why she has been a very good player there for a long time, and that’s why their team is in the top 10.”

Heather Ezell and Alison Lacey were the 3-point threats that were supposed to take over the game for Iowa State, but Lacey followed up her 25-point performance against Texas with 12 points on 4-of-11 shooting, but still added six assists and only one turnover. Iowa State got great efforts from seniors Amanda Nisleit and Nicky Weiben as well, adding 13 and 12 points respectively, but the squad couldn’t get it done.

On a night of disappointment for the Cyclones in Oklahoma City, all is not lost, as the squad will surely get a bid to the NCAA tournament, and give Ezell another shot at chasing the record.

“I probably shouldn’t have played her to be honest,” Fennelly said of Ezell. “But she is a senior and she has earned the right.”

Ezell and the Cyclones will now say good-bye to the Big 12 Tournament and hello to the Big Dance, with more than one victory on their minds. There is still plenty of time for the team to ride off in its own blaze of glory.

“Let me say this about Bill Fennelly,” Mulkey said. “This guy is one of the best coaches I have ever had to coach against…His kids, you just love coaching against them because you know you are going to have to work.”