Coming off a 23-point effort at Kansas last Saturday, sophomore guard Alison Lacey outdid herself and poured in 32 of the Cyclones’ 66 points Wednesday in a win against Texas Tech.

Lacey led in a huge chunk of the other offensive categories, not just points. She took a career-high 23 of the team’s 49 field goal attempts and 11 of the team’s 18 3-point attempts.

“She’s just a smart player with the basketball in her hands,” said Texas Tech coach Kristy Curry. “She really has great court savvy, great court awareness, and she puts everyone in a position to be more successful. She’s just a great player.”

Lacey and starting center Jocelyn Anderson were the only two ISU players to have any success in the first half.

The two accounted for a largely unbalanced scoring attack, netting 19 of the team’s 21 first-half points.

Fennelly credits the Cyclones’ defense, which was the team’s identity earlier in the season, with Iowa State still being in the game after such an absence of scoring in the first half.

“I think, to our players’ credit, we defended enough to not get knocked out in the half,” Fennelly said.

The second half saw more domination from Lacey, who added 20 more points to her first-half total of 10 and led a more balanced scoring attack. Bolte scored seven points in the second, while Ezell added 10. Bolte had been averaging 18 points a game in conference play coming into Wednesday’s game.

“We’re not going to get a lot of wins when Kelsey is getting seven points,” Fennelly said. “I’m not making excuses for her, but she’s been sick the last couple days. As far as Big 12 goes, not her best performance, but seven points, seven rebounds, 27 minutes, she’s a freshman – you know that’s not too bad.”

The better balanced scoring attack directly correlated with more team success. With only two players scoring more than two points in the first half, the team scored an abysmal 21 points on 30 percent shooting.

In the second half, the numbers spiked, with 18 points coming from players beside Lacey and Anderson. The team scored 45 second-half points on 55 percent shooting.

Lacey won’t be able to carry a load this large every game, but for this night, she made her teammates’ lives much easier.

“It’s amazing [watching her],” Anderson said. “Every time she makes a shot, I’m so happy for her. It just makes everything so much easier.”