First-game nerves were not a problem for the ISU women’s basketball team Sunday. The Cyclones opened up the 2003—04 season with an exhibition game win over the Minnesota State Mavericks 65-39 at Hilton Coliseum.

Iowa State jumped out to a 25-2 lead midway through the first half. But Minnesota State rallied, trailing by only 12 at halftime.

“Certainly, we started out really well,” said freshman Megan Ronhovde. “We didn’t finish the half probably the way we would like, but the second half, I thought the intensity level was up there. We just keep playing to get better as a team, and I thought the second half we played really well as a team.”

The leading scorer for the Cyclones was senior guard Erica Junod. She finished with 12 points on 4-of-10 shooting and three assists. Sophomore Brittany Wilkins pulled down 11 rebounds in 17 minutes.

“I was really happy,” Wilkins said. “I just wanted to go hard and contribute in any way I could. [Rebounding] was my main goal this year — just coming in and rebounding a lot better.

“I thought the newcomers did a good job. We have just got to keep the energy levels coming from them high.”

Seeing considerable playing time were freshman Lyndsey Medders and Ronhovde. Medders scored six points and had seven assists, while Ronhovde added nine points.

“It was everything and more than I expected,” Ronhovde said. “It’s an unbelievable feeling when you put an Iowa State jersey on and represent the wonderful people that surround this community.”

ISU head coach Bill Fennelly was pleased with his freshmen’s performances and said he believes they will play a big part in the Cyclones’ success this season.

“I thought they played very well, I really did,” Fennelly said. “I thought they made some mistakes, but I don’t know if you’d call them freshmen mistakes, because other kids made the sames ones — as far as not guarding in the right spot or making a bad decision with the ball.”

The two freshmen saw 25 minutes of action apiece and made the most of their playing time.

“Lyndsey had seven assists and two turnovers,” Fennelly said. “Megan Rohnovde takes 12 shots and is active. We played Megan at the two, three and the four in one game of her freshman year, which is almost unfair. I thought they both were very good, very active.”

Fennelly said he thought Iowa State executed well but could improve shooting-wise. Iowa State shot 39.1 percent for the game after shooting 50 percent in the first half.

“I think the No. 1 thing I liked was that I felt for most of the game we had a pretty good idea of what we were trying to do from the practice court to the game court,” Fennelly said. “I think our conditioning level was solid. No one really seemed to get overly tired. We have to shoot the ball better, which I think we can.”

Next up for Iowa State is the team’s final exhibition game Sunday against South Dakota.