Iowa State faced five Kansas Jayhawks, a Kansas State Wildcat and a former Cyclone and beat them all yesterday afternoon as the National Women’s Basketball League (NWBL) USA Elite Exhibition Team fell to the Cyclones by a final of 84-60.

Iowa State came out charged early, grabbing a 7-0 advantage. But NWBL quickly doused the flame.

The two exchanged seven lead changes before NWBL ran into the locker room, holding tightly to its two-point lead, 33-31.

Unforced turnovers and a lack of intensity lead to ISU’s first half struggles.

With this season’s fast-paced oriented offense “turnovers are going to happen,” said guard Megan Taylor. But Coach Fennelly stressed in the locker room to do away with “fundamental turnovers,” she added.

Fennelly’s half-time speech was “short,” Taylor said. And she was surprised by how calm he was.

“I told them, ‘We’re going to end up refunding fans money at the end of the game,'” Fennelly said, if the team kept playing as it did.

This and whatever else was uttered in the locker room roused the Cyclones for the final session. Iowa State scored 53 second-half points to NWBL’s 27.

Taylor hit back-to-back three pointers to finish as the game-leader with 22 points. The second three came with 5:37 remaining in the game and forced NWBL to call a 30-second time-out due to the 70-52 deficit.

Angle Welle also established her presence in the second half. The junior from North Dakota finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds.

Fennelly is pleased with his pre-season Big 12 Player of the Year. He added he has begun to “assume” a double-double for Well every game.

Fennelly’s concern is when Welle takes a seat on the bench and is replaced by a back-up.

“We have 10 unaccounted minutes. Somebody’s going to have to fill that in the post,” he said.

Although back-up forwards Kelly Cizek and Holly Bordewyk hold their own in the paint, Fennelly is looking for more from his back-up centers: Freshmen Kate Bauman and senior Gintare Cipinyte.

He is not looking for the same type of productivity from the back-ups that Welle provides, but Fennelly needs “somebody to off-set [the opposition].”

Something Fennelly will try to implement in practice is to “push them harder than they’d like.”

But ultimately it will come down to the two centers saying “I want to be a good player,” Fennelly said.

All post players were often fed passes on Sunday from a penetrating Lindsey Wilson – who finished with 11 points and eight rebounds – that are bobbled or result in a turnover.

This is another facet that needs improvement in Fennelly’s eyes.

“We have to get used to life after Stacy [Frese],” Fennelly said.

The forwards and centers, Fennelly said, often get in a cluster in the paint, and they must learn to “replace.” This means simply to occupy a slightly different area of the court so the distance of a pass from Wilson is not as hard to handle.

Yesterday’s game was the final exhibition for the NWBL team.

There are 16 NWBL teams that travel across the nation, competing against 55 college teams.

The league will attempt to survive professionally alongside the WNBA on Jan. 19, 2001.