Cyclone women rout Colorado

Paul Kix

ISU women’s basketball head coach Bill Fennelly appeared minutes before tip-off against the Colorado Buffaloes sans his customary sports coat.It is not that Colorado is a “casual Friday” sort of team. The 25th-ranked Buffaloes brought a 14-3 overall and 5-1 conference record into Hilton Coliseum on Saturday night.But it worked out nicely for Fennelly that his apparel was symbolic of his team’s action on the court — an easy stroll through the park on the way to a 95-61 win.”I thought they were ready to play and they played that way,” Fennelly said of his team. “They were very unselfish.”Indeed, Iowa State was.The Cyclones had 27 assists on 34 field goals.If he was worried about anything Saturday night, it might have been that the Cyclones looked for the open man too often.”Sometimes, they are too into getting teammates the ball,” Fennelly said.A typical ISU basket Saturday looked something like this: with 12:31 left in the game and the Cyclones leading 66-46, Erica Junod brings the Cyclones down the court in transition. Junod is picked up defensively in the middle of the paint. She sees senior Erica Haugen open in the left corner. She fires her a pass. Haugen senses the defensive pressure coming from her right side and gives a touch pass to senior Megan Taylor who is 10-feet from Haugen on the left side.Taylor gets off a wide open three, thanks to the Cyclones exploitation of Colorado’s help defense — and drains it.It should come as no surprise that Taylor drained the three on this night. Iowa State made 12-15 from behind the arc, good for 80 percent.”I think we played pretty well as a team tonight,” Taylor said.She finished with 23 points and eight rebounds. Center Angie Welle led Iowa State with 28 points, tying her career high, while also grabbing seven rebounds.Point guard Lindsey Wilson added 20 more points, along with her game-high nine assists.Forward Tracy Gahan was the fourth Cyclone starter to score 10 or more points. She ended with 11.But it was more than just offense.”We guarded the three’s really well,” Taylor said. She added that the perimeter defense was one of Fennelly’s points of emphasis coming into the game.”We did what we wanted to defensively,” she said.The Cyclones held Colorado to 42 percent shooting on 27-64 from the field.Guard Mandy Nightingale came in as the Buffaloes leading scorer at 14.8 points per game. She finished with eight.Junior Eisha Bohman led Colorado with 16 points. Guard Jenny Roulier was the only other Buffalo to score in double digits, ending with 12 points.Colorado’s 61 points was the lowest offensive output of the season.”They kept their poise and we didn’t,” Colorado head coach Ceal Barry said. “Their defense was a lot better than ours. We didn’t play any defense all night.”The Cyclone win was the most lop-sided in series history. The win also marked the seventh consecutive time Iowa State has beaten Colorado. No other team has ever done that to the Buffaloes.Iowa State improved to 16-2 on the year and 6-1 in the conference.