The ISU women’s basketball team may have found the post presence its been looking for all season.

Sophomore Nicky Wieben had one of her best career performances, scoring 24 points and pulling down 11 rebounds in Sunday’s 76-68 win over Missouri, four days after a dismal performance against Nebraska.

Playing in front of a national television audience and an announced crowd of more than 10,000, the Cyclones (17-6, 5-5 Big 12) consistently had an answer for the persistent Tigers (14-8, 2-7). Missouri pulled away from Iowa State in its 66-56 win in Columbia, Mo., earlier last month, but clutch shooting down the stretch gave the Cyclones the victory inside Hilton Coliseum on Sunday.

“It was one of those games where neither team could impose their will on the other team,” said ISU coach Bill Fennelly. “You know, we’d get a five-point lead, and bang, they’d hit a couple shots. They’d tie it, and then we’d come back. That’s Big 12 basketball.”

Wieben showed flashes of the dominance of her standout prep career at Ankeny.

The 6-foot-4 Wieben anchored the Hawkettes during four Iowa state championships. Sunday afternoon, she shot 11-of-15 from the field and converted most of her opportunities in the paint.

Last Wednesday against the Cornhuskers, she failed to score and had only two rebounds in 22 minutes of action.

“I don’t know that Nicky Wieben could have played any better. No one saw this coming,” Fennelly said. “To her credit, she was into the game from the very beginning. She wanted the ball, played with a lot of energy on both ends of the floor, made some tough shots . Every time we had to have a basket, Nicky Wieben got it.”

Senior captain Lyndsey Medders went 1-for-10 in her first game back from a concussion, but her lone field goal was a 3-pointer that gave the Cyclones a nine-point lead with 2:24 left.

After Missouri answered with a three, Heather Ezell spotted up in the left corner and sealed the win, hitting her third 3-pointer of the game.

Ezell finished with 15 points, while Medders earned most of her 10 points from the free-throw line. Medders, Iowa State’s all-Big 12 point guard, also had six assists in 23 minutes.

Fennelly said the senior might not have played if it wasn’t one of the last four home games of her career.