For the first ten minutes of Wednesday night’s game, the ISU women’s basketball team didn’t see much improvement from its ongoing offensive struggles.

But thanks to a 19-5 run in the final six-and-a-half minutes of the first half, Iowa State rolled to a 65-42 victory over the Missouri Tigers in an important bounce back game.

“Knowing that you had just lost two, we knew this was a game we had to win,” coach Bill Fennelly said. “I’m not big on must-wins, but it was probably as close as we could get to it. But it’s good to be 2-2 and right back in the middle of things knowing where we have to go Saturday, because Nebraska is always hard on us.”

The Cyclones (14-4, 2-2) were coming off of one of their worst offensive performances of the season, a game in which they shot just 33.5 percent from the field and scored only 19 points in the first half against No. 15 Kansas State.

Senior Heather Ezell  helped the offense by gaining the hot hand early against Missouri, as she drained five of her seven 3-point shots in the game. Ezell never took a shot from inside the arc, and finished with a game-high 15 points.

“To get some points on the board before halftime is always nice,” Ezell said. “It was slow early, but you just have to keep guarding until your offense catches up with you. We stayed on it on the defensive end and we started to get some shots to fall.”

The Cyclones still never found a true rhythm on offense, and at one point in the first half both teams went on a four-minute scoring drought. The Tigers (10-7, 1-3 Big 12) led for only the first minute in a half of the game, but it wasn’t long before Ezell took over with the start of her three-point barrage, as the Cyclones claimed the lead and never gave it back.

“It was 9-7 for a long time,” Fennelly said. “But then Heather hit a couple of shots and everyone relaxed a bit. We weren’t turning the ball over a whole lot and we were missing some shots and opportunities, but in a game like that you could be down 8, 10 or 12 points if you’re not guarding. So we told them to keep guarding because if their numbers are low, we’re still in the game.”

A relentless defensive effort helped pace Iowa State, which led by as much as 31 points in the second half. Despite shooting just 42.3 percent themselves, the Cyclones limited the Tigers to a 30-percent mark from the field. Their 42 points scored were the lowest the Tigers have scored in the 67-game history of these two teams.

The Cyclones also got a big boost off the bench from freshman Ashley Arlen, who dumped in 13 points, including seven free-throws and a perfect night of shooting from the floor.

Wednesday night’s game marked the first conference matchup of the season that did not require starters to play down to the wire, and the easy win has them right back in the middle of the Big 12 race. The Cyclones are facing a big road game this weekend, as they will travel to Lincoln, Neb. on Saturday to take on the 10-7 Cornhuskers.

“We got lucky, because every night we’re going to come in here and play a team that’s ready to go,” Ezell said. “To get a lead like we did, we had to take advantage of it like we were able to tonight, because we’re probably not going to get that too often.”

Tip off at the Devaney Center in Lincoln is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Saturday.