Before Bill Fennelly and the ISU women’s basketball team could blink, Nebraska had already built a 20-5 lead to open Saturday night’s women’s basketball conference matchup at Hilton Coliseum.

The Huskers (14-4, 3-1 Big 12) were nearly perfect for the first five-and-a-half minutes of the game, connecting on eight of their first nine shots from the floor. Iowa State (12-5, 1-3) got as close as two but was never able to grab the lead and dropped the contest 82-72.

The win was Nebraska’s first at Hilton Coliseum since 1997.

“Sometimes you have to keep scoring to stay in games and others you have to be able to make stops,” said Fennelly. “Tonight we couldn’t stop them and we couldn’t score. Before you know it, it’s 20-5 almost immediately and you’re thinking they’re going to score 160 on us.”

Nebraska entered Saturday’s game with the lowest three-point percentage in the Big 12, at 28.8 percent, but connected on 11 of 19 against the Cyclones, a school record for three-pointers made in a game.

The Huskers also set season highs, with a 57.1 percent shooting percentage from the floor and 25 team assists.

The Cyclones continually chipped away at the lead throughout the game, but Nebraska kept finding ways to knock down shots at crucial moments.

Iowa State put the crowd of 11,066 on its feet with an 11-0 run to get within two at 55-53, but Nebraska responded on its next position with a three-pointer by Yvonne Turner, sparking a 10-0 run for the Huskers.

“There were a couple of times where we would make a run, but they would hit a big shot and take everything out of us,” said junior Heather Ezell, who scored 19 points on the night. “We came close, but never seemed to get over the hump because they always had some kind of answer.”

With both Nicky Wieben and Toccara Ross sidelined for the season with ACL injuries, the Cyclones were forced to rely on quality minutes from less-experienced players. All five of Iowa State’s starters played 35 minutes or more.

Iowa State’s bench contributed just two points, a stark contrast to Nebraska’s Cory Montgomery, who scored 21 of the Cornhuskers’ 35 points off the bench and was the leading scorer in the game.

“I’m ecstatic with the way we played. Of the five kids that played the majority of the game tonight, three of them weren’t even on campus last year,” said Fennelly of Jocelyn Anderson, Denae Stuckey and Kelsey Bolte.

Bolte, who scored a team-high 20 points for the Cyclones, has now scored 20 or more points in each of the team’s four conference games.

Junior college transfer Jocelyn Anderson played almost double her 18.4-minute season average and tallied a career-high 10 rebounds.

“I’m not into moral victories, but tonight I thought our team gave a phenomenal effort,” Fennelly commented.

“There haven’t been many teams that have played harder than those five kids did, and unfortunately they weren’t rewarded for it.”