KANSAS CITY, Mo. – With zeroes showing on the clock, every inch of the rim was graced by Shalee Lehning’s shot as it rolled round and round the rim before finally spilling out and clinching victory for the ISU women’s basketball team.

Iowa State (20-11) avenged two losses from earlier in the season, defeating No. 1-seeded Kansas State (21-9) in ultra-dramatic fashion, 66-65. It took overtime to decide a winner in one of the most exciting games in Big 12 Tournament history.

Alison Lacey and Heather Ezell showed vast measures of fight and heart, hitting one critical shot after another and carrying the Cyclones on their shoulders, putting them into position to pull off the upset.

With 7 seconds remaining in regulation, the Cyclones trailed by two and called a time-out. From the break, Lacey received a wide-open look in the right corner for a potentially game-winning 3-pointer.

She missed.

But like clockwork, Jocelyn Anderson was there to snag an uncontested offensive rebound and lay in the game-tying bucket with four-tenths of a second on the clock.

“Joc came out of nowhere with a huge rebound,” said Lacey. “And it was in, and I saw the clock, and I didn’t know if she had enough time, but luckily she did.”

That excitement foreshadowed what the overtime would become.

The Wildcats owned the first four minutes of the overtime period, gradually working their way to a six-point lead with less than one minute remaining.

Shortly after, Ezell drilled her eighth three of the afternoon, breaking the single-game record she set yesterday and the record for most threes ever in the tournament – an unreal 15 in two games.

With the Wildcats leading by two, the Cyclones immediately fouled. Kansas State’s Danielle Zanotti made two free throws to expand the lead to four, but Lacey immediately countered with a three, cutting the deficit to one.

The Cyclones once again fouled, and Zanotti went to the charity stripe with 10.1 seconds remaining. This time, she made the first and missed the second. Anderson rebounded and quickly found Lacey, who went coast-to-coast and made a game-tying layup while being fouled with 4.3 seconds remaining.

Lacey had received directions from coach Bill Fennelly prior to Zanotti’s final free throws; she executed perfectly.

“What I told Aus was if [their lead is] two, ‘don’t stop, take the ball right to the basket, and if it’s three, we have a play we run at the end,'” Fennelly said.

Lacey stepped up and hit what would eventually be the game-winning free throw, but not before the most exciting shot of the tournament was put up.

In 4.3 seconds, Lehning dribbled to the free-throw line and put up a shot that danced off the front of the rim, spun in, rung out, and repeated, eventually falling out of the right side of the bucket.

“My head dropped at one point because I thought it went in,” Ezell said. “Then it kind of perked back up, and as soon as it fell out I ran as fast as I could to the other end of the court.”

Fennelly described his emotions much like Ezell, from a low to an ultimate high in a matter of seconds.

“It was as close as any shot I’ve seen,” Fennelly said. “It’s like Heather said – you went from excited that you won, to devastated that you lost, to excited that you won. It was an amazing ending to an amazing game.”