For a team that has constantly suffered from the free-throw line during conference play, the charity stripe could not have been kinder to the ISU women’s basketball team on Saturday night. 

Due to the defensive toughness of No. 12 Kansas State, which boasts the best scoring defense in the nation at 49.8 points per game, the Cyclones knew they had to take advantage of every chance they got at free points. 

Iowa State’s atypical offensive scheme got them to the line 36 times in the game, where they made 29 shots (80.6 percent), including a run of 15 consecutive completed free throws in the final five minutes to help seal their 60-50 win. 

“I think our kids really understood that it’s almost impossible to run an offense against [Kansas State],” head coach Bill Fennelly said. “So we told our players to try to run it up the court, try to get into the offense as quick as you could to try to speed up the game, and just attack them. That’s not the way we play, but you have to make something up once in awhile — and to the kids’ credit we did and got to the free-throw line.” 

Entering the game, Iowa State was ninth in the Big 12 in free-throw percentage thus far in conference play (64.7 percent), but got a big pick-me-up from one of its most unlikely sources late in the first half. 

Despite shooting just 38.9 percent from the free-throw line all season, Jocelyn Anderson’s history at the charity stripe was thrown out the window Saturday night. 

“You talk about a kid that’s been struggling to contribute,” Fennelly said. “She hasn’t shot well from the free-throw line but every morning she’s in here shooting. Every morning. She doesn’t get enough credit for what she does for this team, and to see her step out there and do what she did tonight, it makes me really happy for her.” 

Anderson went 7-8 from the line on the night, and hit several key free throws under a significant amount of pressure. Every time Anderson went to the free-throw line, the lead was never more than two points for either team. 

She hit four straight in the final two minutes of the first half to give the Cyclones the halftime lead, and also hit two while down 42-41 late in the second half to put Iowa State up for good. 

 “It’s a huge relief,” Anderson said.

Heather Ezell made the biggest contribution from the line, where she scored 11 of her game-high 19 points on 12 shots. She alone carried the Cyclones through the final minute of the game, where she converted on all of her final eight free throws. 

Iowa State’s 39 shots from the floor in the game were just three more than they took from the line, and were the fewest the Cyclones have taken in a game all season. Kansas State’s rigid defense may have never allowed Iowa State to find an offensive rhythm, but Iowa State’s assertiveness solved its problems, as there wasn’t much the Wildcats could do while Iowa State took its 36 uncontested shots. 

 Deb Patterson, Kansas State’s head coach, also thought that the Cyclones played  well offensively on the court. “I thought their disposition offensively was significantly more aggressive than ours and I think that, more than anything, was the difference in the game.”