The Cyclones picked the right time of year to begin playing their best basketball of the season.

The ISU women’s basketball team advanced to their second consecutive Big 12 Championship game with an 85-48 blowout over Nebraska in the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament.

“We played really well, no question about it. Our defense really set the tone. Nebraska had been playing really well, they scored 80 last night, and we did a nice job on them,” ISU coach Bill Fennelly said.

The Huskers finished with only one player in double figures, center Angie Leonhardt.

Leonhardt had 10 of her 11 points in the first 10:06 of the game, but was plagued by foul trouble the rest of the game.

Fennelly said that it wasn’t anything Iowa State did defensively to shut her down the rest of the way.

“To be honest with you, we sat at one of the time-outs and diagrammed some plays at her to try to get her to foul. We had no answer for her early,” Fennelly said.

The Cyclones were led by Stacy Frese, who scored 20 points in the win.

“I thought Frese was the key for them. She hit big shots when they needed them,” Nebraska coach Paul Sanderford said.

In Wednesday afternoon’s 93-58 win over Oklahoma State, the Cyclones employed a 19-0 first half run that broke the game open.

Thursday evening, it was a 14-0 run that turned a tie game into a 30-16 ISU lead with 5:27 left in the opening half.

The smallest lead the Cyclones enjoyed after the run was 11, and the game was out of reach shortly after intermission.

“The way we are playing right now is phenomenal. We can’t be anything but pumped to be playing right now,” ISU guard Erica Haugen said.

Iowa State was helped by a couple of factors.

The first was the fact that Nebraska was playing their third game in three days.

“I think the third day really had to take its toll. We caught them on a good night,” Fennelly said.

Another major factor that was helping the Cyclones out was the large contingent of Cyclone fans that made the journey to Kansas City.

“I think it has to be a little intimidating to come in here and play. And a lot of teams really aren’t used to playing in front of big crowds anyway,” Haugen said.

The Cyclones will face Texas Tech in the finals for the second consecutive year.

The Red Raiders tied with Iowa State with a 13-3 mark in conference play. TTU defeated Texas in the semifinals.

Iowa State won the only meeting between the two schools this year, opening the conference season with a 72-47 slashing of Tech in Ames.