After finishing the game with a 34-10 run to defeat Texas A&M 81-58 in College Station, the Iowa State women’s basketball team was feeling pretty good.

After finding out Missouri had defeated Kansas 65-62, meaning that Iowa State now controls its own destiny once again with only two games to play, the mood improved considerably.

“That’s a big win for Missouri. I’m going to have to send them a thank-you card or something tomorrow,” ISU head coach Bill Fennelly said.

The Cyclones used a combined 50 points from Desir‚e Francis (26) and Angie Welle (24) to dispatch the Aggies.

Iowa State found itself trailing 48-47 with 10 minutes left in the game before they turned on the afterburners and blew A&M away down the home stretch.

“I think the first 30 minutes, the game was very much in doubt. We seem to do this a lot, play down to our competition, and we did that for a long time tonight,” Fennelly said.

Francis had 19 of her 26 points in the second half, and 15 of those came in the final 10 minutes.

“I thought Des played great. She really hustled and got down the court and got some layups that helped her confidence. Angie and Des both dominated down the stretch,” Fennelly said.

Welle had 13 of her 24 in the second half and was 10-11 from the field.

“I was really proud of Angie tonight. She really was fighting it early, she had about five travels called on her. But she kept working and finally got things going,” Fennelly said.

The Cyclones trailed by as many as eight points in the first half before using 17-6 run that put them in the lead.

But the Aggies were pesky in the half, and Iowa State’s lead was 34-29 at the midway point.

“With the way we played, I couldn’t believe we were up five at half. We could never get a flow going. I tried to sub a lot, but nobody really had a lot of energy,” Fennelly said.

Iowa State’s play down the stretch was an encouraging sign for a team fighting for the conference title.

“I thought we did what we needed to do to win. We really came together as a team, and good things happened,” said Cyclone guard Stacy Frese.

Frese finished with 10 points, while backcourt mate Megan Taylor ended with six. However, Fennelly said that the team did other things that were key to the win.

“Stacy hit two huge threes, and Megan really defended well. So they might not have had all the points tonight, but I thought they played a solid game,” Fennelly said.

The Cyclones now look ahead to a home match with Baylor, who has only one win in the conference this season.

It will be Iowa State’s final regular-season home game.

“It’s going to be a really fun night for our kids. There is going to be a lot of emotion out there, and I’m sure there will be plenty of people there,” Fennelly said.

Monica Huelman, who sat out the game due to a broken finger sustained in ISU’s win over Missouri Saturday night, will play in the game.

The game is important for more than just sentimental reasons.

“This is the game that if we win can assure us of being a top four seed in the Big 12 Tournament,” Fennelly said. “It’s a huge game for us.”

Portions of this article appeared courtesy of the Cyclone Radio Network.