DALLAS — Lindsey Wilson scored 25 points in her last game as a Cyclone, but the outcome still hurt.

After the 63-60 loss to Kansas Tuesday in the first round of the Big 12 tournament, Wilson, Mary Cofield and Holly Bordewyk — all seniors — took off their ISU jerseys for the last time.

At the post-game press conference, Wilson slumped back in her seat and teared up when asked about the end of her career. She said it’s starting to sink in.

“It is now,” Wilson said.

Cofield, a former transfer who completed her second season at Iowa State, averaged just over six points per game this season. She had 13 points and seven rebounds against Kansas.

“You go into a game and you don’t really think about it being your last. And then you’re done,” Cofield said. “It’s tough.”

ISU head coach Bill Fennelly said Wilson, a three-year starter, will be missed, as will the rest of the seniors.

“You get into college coaching for people like Lindsey Wilson,” he said. “This league will never find a better role model than her. She’s an academic all-American and she’s an outstanding player. Everything that our program is about are the things that Lindsey Wilson has demonstrated every single day.”

Wilson helped Iowa State win back-to-back conference tournament championships along with the Cyclones’ regular-season conference title in 2000. This season, Iowa State’s youthful squad finished 11-17 and 3-13 in the conference. This season accounted for nearly as many losses than Wilson and Bordewyk had seen in the first three years of their career combined — 21.

“Especially in a year when we haven’t had the success that we’ve had in the past, she never flinched,” Fennelly said. “Even when we left the locker room [after the game], she pulled the team together and talked to them.”

He said Wilson’s positive attitude said more about her character as a human being than the kind of basketball player.

“She’s been very successful at whatever she does and if this team is better next year, Lindsey Wilson will have a lot to do with that even though she’s not playing,” Fennelly said. “She has set the standard very high. She’s captured the imagination and hearts of a lot of people in Ames, Iowa.”