On a night when the senior’s past accomplishments were supposed to be honored, it was their performance with NCAA Tournament aspirations in the air against No. 25 Nebraska that will be remembered.

Iowa State reached the 20-win plateau and added yet another line to its NCAA-bid resume by defeating Nebraska 64-53 behind inspired performances from seniors Megan Ronhovde and Lyndsey Medders.

Ronhovde led the Cyclones with 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while Medders added 13 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.

“It’s your last game of your career here and there is definitely a bit of ownership that gets taken place,” Ronhovde said. “It is really neat that the game that could essentially lock us into some type of postseason play happens to be on Senior Night.”

Coach Bill Fennelly said his teams traditionally struggle with emotions on Senior Night.

“The emotion of this game before the game; you could cut it with a knife,” he said. “I tried to give them a speech before the game that I thought would help, and everyone was crying, including coach.”

Iowa State came out showing emotional jitters in the first half, as it scored just six points in the opening five minutes.

The Cyclones, however, let the magnitude of the game carry them through the difficult emotions that led to the slow start and opened up a 26-19 halftime lead.

“I think that [the magnitude of the game] helped us tremendously,” Medders said. “As emotional as we were, I can’t imagine what it would have been like if we weren’t playing for a postseason. In a good way it kind of makes the whole Senior Night thing in the back of our minds.”

The Cyclones saw their 11-point second-half lead dwindle to two with 15:10 left in the game before Ronhovde took over, igniting an 18-2 Cyclone run. She scored eight points, including back-to-back 3s, during the run that crippled Nebraska’s night.

The win improves the Cyclones postseason resume by giving them their third win over a ranked opponent – they defeated then-No. 13 Texas A&M (61-54) and then-No. 22 Texas (67-56).

The game also guarantees that Iowa State can’t finish worse than 8-8 in the Big 12, which is seen as one of the top conferences in the country.

Fennelly, however, isn’t quite ready to count Iowa State in the NCAA Tournament.

“I’m not going to say that yeah, we should be in the NCAA Tournament. I don’t operate that way, and I never have,” Fennelly said.

“All we can do is play the games and let the committee make the decision. If we’re good enough to get, in we’ll get in. If we don’t, then we didn’t do enough.”

The Cyclones (20-7, 8-6) have won three straight home games and currently sit in fifth place. They go on the road for the final two games of the regular season, with fourth-place Nebraska (21-7, 9-5) in striking distance. The top four teams in the Big 12 receive a first-round bye in the Big 12 Tournament.

“For us, we would like to finish the Big 12 season 2-0,” Medders said.

“For us, it’s not over with. Our legacy and our career and what we still want to accomplish is by no means over with.”