ISU guard Heather Ezell thrust her hand up in celebration as her 3-point shot trickled through the net with 1:45 left in the game, sending the crowd into a frenzy of applause.

Thanks to a quick pass from Alison Lacey, Ezell pulled off a shot from the corner, clear of any Kansas State defenders.

“It might have been the one open look we had all night,” coach Bill Fennelly said, semi-jokingly. “The play actually worked. Of all the plays I called, one finally worked.”

In one quick instant, the Cyclones had increased its lead to 48-44, quickly changing the momentum.

“That’s Iowa State. You give them one look at a big three and the game changes immediately,” Kansas State coach Deb Patterson said.

The shot did prove to be the death knell for the Wildcats as the Cyclones (16-4, 4-2) rode its 80.6 free-throw percentage to a 60-50 upset of 12th-ranked Kansas State (18-2, 5-2), only their second loss of the season.

From the tip-off both teams settled into a strong defensive set-up, making each other work to find any type of look at the basket.

Only two weeks after the Cyclones’ 59-52 loss at Kansas State, Saturday’s game yielded a similar result, but this time with Iowa State coming out as the victor.

“I think this was a game of which each team asserted themselves on the offensive side of the floor was pretty much going to win this game. It was a defensive battle,” Patterson said.

To counteract the Wildcats’ precise and mechanical offensive style, Iowa State had to break away from its usual tendency to try and spread out a team to look for open shots inside and outside.

“What we told our players was try and run it up the court. Try and get into your offense as quick as you could to speed up the game. Running something and then just attack them,” Fennelly said. “Don’t try to do anything fancy because it’s just too hard to score.”

Both squads were held in check for most of the first half, with Iowa State holding a slim 22-19 lead at halftime.

Although the two teams stayed close in score, the Cyclones were able to get the Wildcats into early foul trouble quickly.

“Our guards did a really good job of getting the ball inside and we were able to get some calls on them early and kinda take them out of the game,” said Nicky Wieben, senior forward who finished with 13 points and 9 rebounds.

The movement inside helped lead to several of the Wildcats’ nine first half fouls. The team finished the game with a season-high 26 fouls.

Iowa State held the opposition without a field goal from the 4:06 mark in the first half until six minutes into the second half.

The Cyclones were able to continue to feed the ball to their forwards, who fell into a rhythm throughout the game.

“The post players did really well just being physical—Amanda Nisleit had a lot of offensive rebounds (4). And that just helped us keep going and gave us a lot of good second looks,” sophomore Kelsey Bolte said.

Forwards Jocelyn Anderson and Nisleit scored 9 and 7 points respectively.

Despite Kansas State’s run late in the second half, the Cyclone defense was able to lock in and keep the Wildcats out of sync offensively.

“They kept us passive and we played passive,” Patterson said.

Ezell, whose clutch 3-pointer was one of the team’s three long-range shots, finished as the Cyclones’ leading scorer at 19 points.

After being held scoreless in the first half, preseason All-Big 12 member Shalee Lehning led the Wildcats with 15 points, five rebounds and four assists.