Katie Robinette scored a career high 30 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead Iowa State to a 88-65 win over Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon.

The return to Hilton Coliseum was good for the Cyclones who got back into the win column after a loss to Iowa in Iowa City.

“That was a big game for our kids; we obviously need to play better after the other night,” head coach Bill Fennelly said. “The one thing I really like about our team is we’re really learning to play as a team.”

Iowa State held the Badgers’ leading scorer, freshman Jolene Anderson, scoreless in the first half. She finished with two points on 1-of-11 shooting.

The Cyclone defense as a whole was greatly improved from Wednesday, apart from the first seven minutes of the game — the Badgers opened the game by making 11 of their first 15 shots.

Wisconsin was the Cyclones’ second consecutive Big 10 opponent.

“It reminded me of the Big 12, ’cause that’s how it is, you go basket for basket, and a lot of the time whoever plays the best defense wins,” Robinette said. “I think every game is important. It’s a ‘W,’ and we need as many of those as we can get.”

Lyndsey Medders got her first start of the season and responded with eight points and eight assists. Fennelly went with a smaller lineup to match up with the Badgers, who didn’t start anyone over 6-foot-1.

“We had a great start to the game, a terrific game plan, tough time containing Robinette inside, particularly in the first half,” Wisconsin coach Lisa Stone said. “We made an adjustment defensively, but we just didn’t have enough firepower to close the game down.”

The Badgers led 30-25 with seven minutes left in the first half when Iowa State started pounding the ball inside to Robinette who collected 14 points before the half.

Iowa State finally pulled ahead 32-30 on a jump shot by Anne O’Neil with four minutes left in the half and extended its lead to 38-30 before Stone was forced to call a time out.

Tegan Stuart hit one more three for the Cyclones before the half, and they took a 41-32 lead into the locker room.

The Cyclones didn’t let the halftime break slow them down and charged out of the locker room shooting. They quickly extended the lead to double digits and coasted through the rest of the game.

“We would have taken anything over that first half against Iowa,” senior guard Mary Fox said.

One difference to this game was the amount of man-to-man defense Iowa State played. It started in a zone, and switched back and forth for a while, but played most of second half in a man defense.

“The first seven minutes we didn’t guard anyone, and after that, I thought we guarded really hard,” Fennelly said. “Katie obviously was the difference in the game, but I think we got a good defensive effort from our perimeter players.”

Iowa State doesn’t get much of a break before Drake comes to town on Wednesday for a 7 p.m. game. After Drake, the Cyclones wrap up their in-state schedule at Northern Iowa on Saturday.