In a game decided by the final possession, No. 20 Iowa State fell to No. 11 Texas 64-62 on Saturday.

“This is just going to motivate us even more because we are so close … It’s a one-possession game to a really good team,” said senior guard Bridget Carleton.

On the final possession, Iowa State was just coming out of a timeout with 13.3 seconds left after a shot clock violation by Texas.

With Alexa Middleton inbounding the ball, Iowa State had the ball enter play twice, but Texas had fouls to give and fouled Iowa State twice in subsequent plays to prevent an easy score.

The next play, Middleton inbounded the ball to Carleton, who drove to the basket. As Carleton drove, a Texas defender stepped up to cut her off.

Middleton then ran along the baseline and was hit with a pass from Carleton. Middleton went up for a layup, but her shot was rejected out of bounds by Texas’ Joyner Holmes with 5.5 seconds left.

Again off of the inbound, Carleton was passed the ball and attempted a shot that fell short. Iowa State’s Madison Wise got the offensive rebound, but time immediately expired.

“It was a good look,” Carleton said. “I wasn’t very effective from the midrange game today, so maybe if I take it to the basket would have been a better option.”

Throughout the game, the lead changed six times and the score was tied eight times. Iowa State struggled shooting and shot a season low 34.3 percent from the floor (23-for-67 shooting).

When Iowa State found themselves open with the ball during the game, coach Bill Fennelly said the players seemed surprised to find themselves so wide open and wouldn’t shoot the ball right away.

While he did say Iowa State wasn’t hitting their shots, Fennelly said to credit Texas for playing a physical defense and limiting easy shot opportunities for Iowa State.

For five minutes in the third quarter, Iowa State failed to connect on a single shot. Due to Iowa State’s cold shooting, Texas was able to build up a 13-point lead which was the largest of the game.

In the third, Fennelly was called for a technical foul with 3:09 left after a no-call in the post on a Kristin Scott shot. Texas made both free throws.

With the two-point loss in mind, Fennelly said after the game to put the loss on him drawing the technical foul.

Carleton shot a deep 3-pointer as time expired and was fouled on the play, then sent to the line where she hit all of her free throws, cutting Texas’ lead to 51-44.

Then in the fourth, Iowa State had its best shooting quarter of the night by connecting on 44.4 percent of its shots from the floor (8-for-18 shooting) and 40 percent of its 3-point tries (2-for-5 shooting).

Sophomore forward Kristin Scott said the team was able to chip away from the deficit by making defensive stops and having strong leadership on the court.

Carleton led the Iowa State scorers in the fourth with eight points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field and also grabbing five rebounds, but her final shot still fell short to give the Cyclones the win.

Carleton ended up finishing with 20 points, nine rebounds and three assists.

The only other Cyclone with double digit points was Scott, who had 15 (6-for-9 shooting). In addition, Scott grabbed nine rebounds with eight of them being on the offensive end. Scott said entering the game she thought if she was going to do one thing right against the Longhorns it would be rebounding the ball.

Entering the game, Fennelly and the players said a point of emphasis against Texas would be negating their offensive rebounding ability. Despite falling short, Carleton said she felt the team did there part to limit Texas’ rebounding opportunities and try to win the game. 

“We did our job to comeback and give ourselves a chance, so I think you can’t take that away from us,” Carleton said.

Texas finished with only six offensive rebounds while Iowa State had 14.

In the end, Texas’ offense was much more efficient than Iowa State’s. Sug Sutton led Texas’ offense, finishing just shy of a triple-double with 24 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.