All season long the ISU women’s basketball team has relied on its ability to shut down opposing offenses in order to win games. It has become the norm to see a game where both teams don’t make it past the 50s.

 That wasn’t the case Wednesday as the Cyclones shot their way to their highest point total in conference play, with a 76-63 home victory over Colorado.

“I think that’s the first time all year that we’ve had to win a game offensively rather than defensively,” coach Bill Fennelly said. “When we made a defensive mistake it didn’t kill us like in some other games because we could score. You don’t see that very often, but it shows they’re capable even when we didn’t have our best defensive effort.”

On a night where the Buffaloes (11-14, 3-10 Big 12) shot 51.0 percent from the field, the Cyclones (20-7, 8-5) countered with their first 70-point showing since Jan. 7 against IPFW. Five players registered 3-pointers as Iowa State was more efficient from behind the arc (.500) than they were from the floor (.412) in the game.

Ironically, the only starter not to hit a 3-point shot for the Cyclones was long-distance specialist Heather Ezell, who has the third most made field goals in school history — 267.

Iowa State led just 36-31 at intermission after a back-and-forth first half, but used a 13-2 run in a short five minute span in the early stages of the second half to help set the tone and pull away from the Buffaloes in their benchmark 20th win of the season.

“It was a five-point game at halftime, and defensively we weren’t doing some things that we thought were going to work,” Fennelly said. “We turned the ball over on our first possession and then they scored right away, but for about four minutes in the second half we were really, really good on defense and really, really good on offense. And that separation was enough where they couldn’t catch us.”

The game marked just the second time in Big 12 play that Iowa State gave up over 60 points, the only other coming on the road against No. 5 Baylor. This was also the first time the Cyclones shot more than 40 percent from the floor in a game since Feb. 7 at Colorado and just the third time they have done so in Big 12 Conference play.

Iowa State’s hot shooting from the floor was also translated at the line, where the Cyclones hit their first 24 consecutive free throws in the game.

“Our shots were finally falling for once, which was an improvement from last game,” junior Alison Lacey said. “We’ve been really struggling on offense this year so to have this big game really helps us.”

Lacey turned in one of several outstanding individual performances scattered throughout the box score for both squads, as five different players scored 19 points or more. Lacey’s all-around performance saw her notch 20 points, seven rebounds, five assists, two blocks and a perfect 10-10 mark from the free-throw line.

Guard Kelsey Bolte continued her regular dominance of Colorado on Wednesday night, as she scored in double digits for the fifth time in six career games against the Buffaloes. The sophomore turned in the best overall shooting performance on the night for Iowa State, as she went 5-6 from behind the arc and made all six free throws for a game-high 23 points. Her 23 points also tied her career high, which she set last season against Oklahoma.

“Kelsey Bolte and Alison Lacey played as good of a game as any guards have in this building,” Fennelly said. “I thought they were tremendous on both ends of the floor, and certainly dictated how the game was played both offensively and defensively.”

Nicky Wieben also added 19 points for the Cyclones and her four made shots from the charity stripe stretched her streak of consecutive made free throws to 19.

Kara Richards led Colorado with a double-double, scoring 21 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.