As a 19 year old, Cyclone freshman Kelsey Bolte has more resembled a future All-American than a true freshman from Ida Grove so far this season.

Going into her first ever Big 12 game against sixth-ranked Oklahoma, she ranked among the top four on the team in three-pointers made and three-point percentage, free-throws made and attempted free-throws, rebounds, assists, steals and points. Most impressive is that as a true freshman she’s accomplished those statistics coming off the bench for the Cyclones this season.

She ballooned many of those statistics in a game against the most talented players she’s ever competed against, while playing the role of the glue that held her team together against the Sooners. She ended the game with a career-high 23 points along with four steals, three assists, four rebounds and a block for good measure.

“Obviously Kelsey Bolte was amazing, being a true freshman doing what she did,” Coach Bill Fennelly said. “She was the only reason we were still in the game.”

Oklahoma head coach Sherri Coale jokingly said she was surprised by Bolte during the game, but then admitted her knowledge of the 6-foot-1-inch guard.

“I was running around going ‘Who is that, who is that’,” Coale said. “She was on the scout, trust me, she was very aggressive and she just took it right at us.”

This was not the first time the 2007 Miss Basketball in the state of Iowa has thoroughly impressed this season. On Dec. 9 at Drake she made her only start of the season in place of an ill Heather Ezell. Her star was the brightest of any in the 58-51 victory – she netted 10 points, grabbed nine rebounds and dished three assists in her starting debut.

In that Drake game and every game since, Bolte has had a cool, calm and collected aura about her, something one would expect to find in a experienced senior, which Bolte is still, technically, many years removed.

“She doesn’t get rattled and she doesn’t get nervous,” Fennelly said.

Apparently though, she’s an accomplished actor as well as basketball star, because she does get nervous. She just doesn’t want anyone to know, in particular her teammates, she said.

“I do get nervous sometimes, but I try not to show it because I don’t want my teammates to know that I am, that might make them a little nervous,” Bolte said. “I just try to keep my composure out there.”

Bolte seems to have a lethal potion of skill and the right aura about her to be successful at the highest degree in the game of basketball, Fennelly said.

“You know something, obviously she’s very skilled. She has a God-given talent to play the game,” Fennelly said. “One of our GA’s says it’s sickening how easy the ball comes out of her hands.

For the 2007 WBCA High-School All-American to one day be an NCAA All-American, she must first be the best player on her own team. Although she is arguably not that, she may not be far from it.

“I don’t know what happened to her at Christmas, her mom must have cooked her some really good food,” Fennelly said. “She’s been the best-player on our team in practice since we came home from Christmas.”