BERKELEY, Calif — Stanford center Jayne Appel strode away from the hoop, showing only the slightest sign of a smile as her 19th basket of the game fell through the net.

The crushing reality that they had no answer to Appel and the Stanford offense had begun to fully set in on the faces of the Cyclone players and coaches.

Dejected Cyclone senior forward Amanda Nisleit kept her head down as she trotted down the floor. Senior guard Heather Ezell stood, hands on her hips, staring knowingly at the scoreboard. ISU coach Bill Fennelly could do nothing but stare blankly towards the court, shaking his head.

Faced with single coverage from the Cyclones for most of the night, Appel turned out a dominating 46-point career-high performance as No. 2 Stanford cashed its ticket to the Final Four with a 74-53 win against the No. 4 Cyclones.

“[Coach] told me before the game that she was pretty sure they weren’t going to double, so we knew immediately that we were going to go inside,” Appel said.

The Cardinal did just that, quickly establishing a fast pace offense from the opening tip, continually feeding the ball to Appel.

The Cyclones defenders could do almost nothing to hinder her attack, constantly switching post players in and out of the game to try to combat Appel.

“Our biggest thing was going to be let her score and try to hold everyone else” Ezell said. “Not allow threes, give them tough twos, and pretty much let her do what she could.”

By bringing most of its players off of Appel, Iowa State tried to limit the rest of the Stanford shooters outside of the paint.

Unfortunately for the Cyclones, Appel’s best effort near the basket was all Stanford needed.

Appel had already set her career-high only two and a half minutes into the first half. By the time the final buzzer sounded she had bypassed fellow Stanford player Candice Wiggins’ NCAA Tournament single-game scoring record of 44.

“It’s a tremendous honor, but I couldn’t have done it without the other four players on the court,” Appel said. “They’re the people that have to get me the ball and take care of the ball bringing it up the court.”

Stanford was able to dominate the Iowa State on the boards, pulling down 47 rebounds to the Cyclones’ 18. The Cardinal’s 17 second-chance points were thanks to 13 offensive rebounds, seven of which belonged to Appel.

The Cyclones were unable to capitalize on the few scoring opportunities Stanford gave up to allow a comeback. Iowa State shot only 36.2 percent from the field, missing 58 total shots.

“We didn’t get a whole lot of open looks,” Ezell said. “Amanda shot a few open ones to keep us in the game, but other than that we had a few open ones we had to knock down.”

Iowa State pulled within nine points with just minutes to go in the first half, but the team came no closer. Stanford pulled out to its largest lead of the night, 22 points, with 2:36 remaining in the game.

After the game, the Cardinal were ecstatic about the chance to travel to St. Louis to play in their second consecutive Final Four.

“Jayne Appel was spectacular. I’m so proud of her and our whole team for really stepping up and making the plays that we needed to take us to the Final Four,” said Stanford coach Tara Vanderveer. “I’ve never been so excited about going to St. Louis.”

Nisleit provided one of the only bright spots for the Cyclones, scoring a team-leading 17 points. She also contributed five of her team’s seven 3-pointers. Ezell and Nicky Wieben also added 10 and seven points respectively.

Although the loss ended Iowa State’s historic Elite Eight run as well the careers of the Cyclones’ seniors, Fennelly said he is proud of what this year’s senior class and team did for the program as a whole.

“I ask the seniors all the time to leave a piece of you in the building. They did that,” Fennelly said. “I think what they accomplished this year, and the way they led our team, puts them on the same plateau as so many other great senior classes.”