Toccara Ross, who grew up a Hawkeye fan, turned into a Hawkeye killer Wednesday night.

Coming off the bench, Ross earned a double-double, netting 15 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, seven of them offensive.

“You never want to single out one player because this is the ultimate team sport, but it’s hard not to tonight,” said coach Bill Fennelly.

Making Ross’s accomplishments more successful is that at 5 feet 10 inches, she was shorter than every player on Iowa’s team. The shortest Hawkeye is 6-2

“As a senior, to play in this kind of game as well as she did, it’s a feel-good story,” Fennelly said. “When you coach, you want good things to happen to good people, and she’s a great kid.”

Ross, who exceeded her season averages of 6.3 points and four rebounds per game in 19 minutes of play, recorded her first double-double of the season in 27 minutes of action against the Hawkeyes.

The Cyclone bench outscored Iowa, 21-2, and Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said Ross was the catalyst of the Cyclones’ bench.

“Toccara was excellent on the boards. I mean, seven offensive rebounds is just tremendous,” Bluder said. “Their bench outplayed our bench as a whole, and she was a big, big factor in that.”

Ross’ 10th rebound came off of a missed lay-up by Iowa’s Stacy Schlapkohl and was the first double-double recorded by a Cyclone this season.

Despite her successes, Ross remained humble and gave her teammates the credit.

“My teammates put me in a great position to take the shots that I did – definitely compliments to my teammates,” Ross said.

Complementing Ross’ post play was sophomore guard Alison Lacey, who finished with 17 points and four assists and, along with Ross, played with an intensity that only an Iowa-Iowa State rivalry game could bring out in a player.

“The Iowa game, in general, brings out a lot of energy to the game,” Ross said. “We were definitely feeling the rivalry all week, and were definitely ready to play tonight.”