KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Tuesday, the shot went in for Iowa State. Wednesday, its luck ran out.

Senior Anne O’Neil missed a jumper from the free-throw line as time expired that would have sent the game to overtime, giving Texas Tech a 61-59 win.

“What I said in the timeout is, ‘We won it on the six-second play yesterday; today we’re going to win it on the three,'” said ISU head coach Bill Fennelly. “It went exactly the way we wanted. We had our go-to player with her hands on the ball. She had a look at it, it just didn’t go in.”

O’Neil took the shot after a perfect pass from the opposite baseline by Tracy Paustian, but the shot was left of target and bounced out.

The loss moved the Cyclones to 23-6 on the year, but an almost certain berth in the NCAA tournament remains.

“I’m feeling a little urgent here,” said senior Katie Robinette. “Now it’s for real; it’ll be over after our last game — win or go home.

“We’ll be ready to go, I promise.”

Alesha Robertson made two free throws with 2.7 seconds left to give the Lady Raiders their winning margin and finished with 13 points. Chelsey Dabbs had 13 for Texas Tech.

Leading the Cyclones were O’Neil with 22 and, more surprisingly, Lisa Kriener, who scored 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting, and grabbed seven rebounds.

“Lisa is someone that, it’s hard to put into words how proud I am of her,” Fennelly said. “This isn’t even a game unless Lisa plays the way she plays.”

Kriener equaled a season high with 30 minutes played. With Mary Fox and Megan Ronhovde having off days — two and five points, respectively — Kriener was a major reason the Cyclones stayed close.

Robinette was on her way to a monster game at halftime, scoring 10 and grabbing eight rebounds before the intermission, but Texas Tech coach Marsha Sharp changed her defense, shutting the Cyclone forward down.

Robinette didn’t score in the second half and only collected one additional rebound.

“Katie is more of a turn-around-jump-shot type of player,” Kriener said. “With them being so tall — [Cristi Greenwalt is] 6-foot-5 and leading the country in blocked shots — that’s out of her comfort zone to go around them.”

The game was close throughout, with neither team able to build a lead for a substantial period of time.

There were 11 lead changes and eight ties in the game, with the biggest lead for either team coming when Brittany Wilkins hit a layup to give Iowa State a nine-point lead with 2:45 left in the first half.

Texas Tech closed the gap but trailed by six going into the locker room.

Iowa State started the second half by pushing the lead to eight, but Dabbs scored five straight, cutting the lead to three.

The teams traded shots for most of the half. Every time Iowa State hit a three to get the crowd involved, Tech answered back.

“When you are playing in an atmosphere where they have their fans with them, they love the 3-point shot,” Sharp said. “If you let them hit one, you almost have to come down and answer immediately to try to take the crowd back out of it.”

The Cyclones now wait to find out when and who they play next.

The women’s NCAA tournament selection show starts at 4 p.m. Sunday, when the women’s bracket will be announced.

Game Notes

• This was the first loss for the Cyclones this season when leading at halftime. They were 19-0 in all other games they took a lead into the locker room.

• Wednesday marked Iowa State’s first loss when it outrebounded an opponent. The Cyclones held a 38-36 advantage on the boards.

• Mary Fox scored only two points on 1-of-8 shooting, with five of those misses coming from 3-point range. It is the third-lowest point output of the year for Fox, as she didn’t score in games on the road against Kansas State and at Lubbock against the same Texas Tech team.

• Iowa State still has the most wins in Big 12 Tournament history at 14. The next-highest team is Texas Tech, with 12.

• Lyndsey Medders dished out five assists, giving her 177 on the year and moving her past Lindsey Wilson for the third-best single-season assist total in ISU history.

— Nathan Wilcke