For the first time in school history, the Iowa State women’s basketball team is one step away from the Big 12 tournament championship.

“It’s really hard to put into words how our team feels and how I feel right now,” head coach Bill Fennelly said. “It’s nice to be in a championship game for the first time in Iowa State’s history.”

After defeating Missouri on Wednesday, the Cyclones made short work of the Kansas Jayhawks last night, thrashing their conference rivals, 79-64.

Shooting an outstanding .549 from the field and featuring five players in double figures, the Cyclones played a clean, hard-fought contest from start to finish, gradually building their margin over the course of the entire 40 minutes.

“Tonight was a great team win,” Stacy Frese said. “It wasn’t just one person or two people tonight — everybody did something. We’re starting to realize that if we keep playing like that, it’s going to be hard to stay with us.”

As she’s done the majority of the year, Frese led the ISU offense, scoring 21 points and dishing four assists.

The aggressive Jayhawk defense was the KU undoing in the first half, as they committed nine fouls to ISU’s one.

Though KU’s intensity never seemed to wane, a more aggressive Jayhawk offense led to a second-half foul margin of 8-14 in Kansas’ favor.

The Cyclones found themselves behind 4-0 in the very early going, but after a Megan Taylor three-pointer gave ISU a 5-4 lead, they never trailed again.

Frese led the way over the course of the first 20 minutes, draining a pair of treys en route to a 12-point halftime total.

The Cyclones used an early 14-3 run to build a sizable lead that they only added to throughout the half, closing out the opening frame with a 30-23 margin.

“Kansas made a commitment in the second half to ram it down our throats,” Fennelly said, “and they did a good job.”

The Jayhawks came out of the locker room on fire, hitting on the majority of their opening second-half shots, but ISU had the answer every time.

A trio of early baskets by Nakia Sanford prompted a six-point Tracy Gahan outburst that included two three-pointers, a steal and a rebound on just two trips down the court that extended the Cyclone lead to 42-29.

“Tracy and I have had an ongoing conversation about her lack of shooting,” Fennelly said. “She has a great shot, but she’s very unselfish. Tonight, she and Erica [Haugen] hit as big a shots as they’ve hit in a long time.”

Down the stretch, Desiree Francis highlighted the potent Cyclone offense, scoring 12 of her 16 total points in the final 20 minutes.

“Des is an amazing kid,” Fennelly said. “She’s our best athlete, she’s hard to guard, she can step out and shoot the three, and she can jump really well. She scores a lot of points for us, and she doesn’t play a lot of minutes.”

The Cyclones owned their biggest lead of the game with 4:02 remaining, a Francis jumpshot kicking the margin to 69-51.

In addition to shooting a sizzling .679 from the floor in the second half, the Cyclones hit on 14 of 15 total free throws, their best effort this season from the line.

Gahan closed the game with 14 points, and Taylor and Haugen each had 11.

Taylor and Gahan led all players in rebounding — Taylor with 9, Gahan with 7.

Erica Haugen also dished four assists without a single turnover.

In addition to superb offensive play, the Cyclones shut down Lynn Pride, holding KU’s strongest scoring threat to just seven total points.

“We just didn’t let her have the ball or do what she likes to do, which is drive to the basket,” Francis said. “We knew she wasn’t a very good shooter, so we tried to make her hit some shots, and she wasn’t able to.”

The Cyclones’ road doesn’t get any easier tomorrow as they take on Big 12 regular season champion Texas Tech.

“I hope it’s better than last time,” Fennelly quipped, referring to the Cyclones’ earlier dismantling at the hands of the Lady Raiders, 71-47. “I hope we get to double-digits by halftime. We had nine last time.”

Fennelly insisted, though, that the Cyclones are not intimidated by Texas Tech.

“We came down here to win,” Fennelly said. “We’ve won two games, and I’m very proud of how we played.”

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No. 21 IOWA ST. 79

No. 25 KANSAS 64

 
KANSAS (22-9)ÿ
Reves 5-11 0-0 10, Johnson 3-5 9-12 15, Sanford 6-10 4-7 16, Jackson 4-9 0-0 8, Pride 3-9 0-0 7, Pruitt 0-0 0-0 0, Scott 0-0 0-0 0, Robbins 3-6 0-0 8, Stepney 0-0 0-0 0, Geoffroy 0-2 0-0 0, Fletcher 0-0 0-0. Totals 24-52 13-19 64.
IOWA STATE (22-6)ÿ
Gahan 4-7 4-4 14, Huelman 1-1 2-2 4, Welle 0-1 2-2 2, Frese 8-15 2-2 21, Taylor 4-9 2-2 11, Haugen 3-5 2-2 11, Francis 8-13 0-1 16. Totals 28-51 14-15 79.
Halftime—Iowa St. 30, Kansas 23. 3-Point goals—Kansas 3-6 (Robbins 2-4, Pride 1-2), Iowa St. 9-17 (Haugen 3-5, Frese 3-6, Gahan 2-3, Taylor 1-3). Rebounds—Kansas 28 (Reves, Pride 6), Iowa St. 28 (Taylor 9). Assists—Kansas 18 (Reves, Jackson 5), Iowa St. 16 (Frese, Haugen 4). Total fouls—Kansas 17, Iowa St. 15. A—6,230.