Forty minutes of vindication.

The same team that handed the Cyclones their first loss in the 2006-07 season had the privilege of being the Cyclones’ first victory Sunday afternoon at Hilton Coliseum, falling 70-59 to Iowa State in front of a crowd of 3,356.

Despite returning all five starters from a squad that handed Iowa State a 52-46 loss last year in Malibu, Calif., the Waves seemed helpless to stop the initial onslaught as the Cyclones rolled out to a 12-0 start. Spurred by junior center Nicky Wieben’s 21 first-half points, Iowa State owned a 26-point lead heading into intermission.

“I thought the first 30 minutes, I don’t care who we were playing, we couldn’t have played any better,” said coach Bill Fennelly. “We guarded hard, we took care of the basketball, Coach [Jack] Easley scouted the game, and it was dead-on perfect.”

A Toccara Ross jump shot gave Iowa State a 37-point lead, its largest of the game, less than eight minutes into the second half. At that point Fennelly pulled the majority of the starters, including Wieben, who was on pace to shatter her previous single-game high of 24 points.

“There are a lot of people who don’t sub much,” Fennelly said. “Unfortunately, which always happens in these games, is you clear the bench and then they start pressing.”

Pepperdine made the best of the situation and cut the lead down to 15 behind senior Daphanie Kennedy’s 17 second-half points before Fennelly switched to the starting lineup to finish.

“I think in the first half there was a lot of motivation there, in that Pepperdine was our first loss last year and also the dropping of the NCAA banner,” Wieben said. “Coach Fennelly gave us a really good speech before the game – saying that if that wasn’t motivation enough, then I don’t know what is. That’s really where we want to end up back this year.”

After being put back in the game with a few minutes to go, Wieben was able to match her single-game high of 24 points on a put-back after one of her six rebounds. Hers wasn’t the only personal best broken, however.

Sophomore point guard Alison Lacey showed any doubters how well she has been able to adapt to the position of floor general for the Cyclones. Lacey racked up 10 assists against the Waves, leaving her just three points shy of a double-double.

“Our scout team does a good job in practice,” Lacey said. “I’m used to the pressure. We do a good job scouting teams so when I went out there I was ready to go.”

Sophomore Denae Stuckey was the only Cyclone other than Wieben to reach double-digits, putting up 12 points and grabbing seven rebounds. Stuckey made two of three from behind the arc in an otherwise poor three-point shooting night for the team. The Cyclones shot only 23.5 percent from three-point range.

“Heather [Ezell] and [Lacey] played really well but they couldn’t make a shot,” Fennelly said. “Sometimes you live and die by the three-point shot – we would have died tonight, but our post players bailed us out.”

Iowa State’s next game will be 2 p.m. Sunday against Sacramento State.