Katie Robinette led a high-scoring ISU offense with 26 points as Iowa State beat William Penn 104-45 in the Cyclones’ first exhibition game of the season.

Robinette is beginning her first full season with the Cyclones after giving birth to her son, Caden, last year on Oct. 23. She returned to the Cyclone lineup on Dec. 21 and said this season she is far ahead of where she finished last year.

“[I’m] miles and miles ahead of where I was then,” Robinette said. “I never really got back to my old self last year, it was frustrating, but it motivated me to work harder.”

Robinette had 22 points in the first half, shooting 9 of 13 from the floor and adding seven rebounds. For the game, Robinette pulled down 10 rebounds, eight of them being offensive in just 20 minutes of action.

ISU coach Bill Fennelly said Robinette had a good offseason and preseason, and her improvement is recognizable from a year ago.

“It’s a totally different person — it’s the same number and the same name, but other than that, there’s no similarities,” Fennelly said.

It was a balanced scoring attack for the Cyclones, as 12 of 13 ISU players scored. Senior Mary Fox scored 12 points and chipped in seven rebounds.

Fox said the Cyclones were glad to get some game experience.

“We definitely wanted to work on our man-to-man defense; that was something we’d really been working on in practice and get a lot of little things done like rebound,” Fox said. “I think we did a pretty good job of running plays.”

The Lady Statesmen’s leading scorer was Ciara Laboy with 13 points. She also had seven rebounds.

William Penn is a NAIA school, and Fox said that even though they aren’t a Division I squad, the Cyclones didn’t overlook them.

“You never belittle your opponent, so I think we’re going to be ready for anything so we wanted to play hard and we did,” Fox said. “The new kids did great, so I think there was good effort from everyone who contributed.”

The three Cyclone newcomers — Tegan Stuart, Seirra Dawson and Lisa Bildeaux — all saw action for Iowa State.

Stuart scored nine points, while Dawson added eight and Bildeaux had five points.

Fennelly said it was an exciting first day for the newcomers.

“All three of them did good and that was encouraging,” he said. “They got to score and they got to do some things.”

The players will have to earn their playing time in practice, and Fennelly said there’s still some things for them to learn, but he sees promise from the trio.

“I thought all three of them have to be encouraged and have to be excited about what the possibilities are not just in the short-term, but the long-term too,” Fennelly said.

Iowa State took a 52-26 lead into the half and held the Lady Statesmen to 31 percent shooting.

“Defensively, we were tinkering with things and we tried to do that today,” Fennelly said. “I liked the fact that defensively we had as much energy in the second half as we did the first.”

Iowa State had 19 steals and 12 blocks, while committing only 11 turnovers.

The Cyclones dominated William Penn on the boards 53-43, pulling down 21 offensive rebounds.

Next up for the Cyclones is their final exhibition game of the season against Northwest Missouri State on Nov. 14.