With the biggest game of the season looming only three days away, the Iowa State women’s basketball team overcame a bit of a sloppy performance to defeat the Huskies of Northern Illinois 81-43.

The Cyclones were led by sophomore Megan Taylor, who finished the contest with 20 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists in just 25 minutes.

ISU jumped out of the gate quickly, accumulating leads of 8-0 and 16-4 early in the half behind Taylor’s hot shooting.

“I was really surprised they didn’t guard me closer. But I had a lot of open shots, and I took them when I had them,” Taylor said.

Iowa State’s stifling defense and the solid play of Taylor and junior Monica Huelman helped ISU take a 38-16 lead at the break.

The Huskies, who came into the game with a 2-2 record but played without two starters, were held to 19 percent shooting in the game’s first half.

Taylor finished the half with 15 points and nine rebounds to go along with five assists, while Huelman had 11 points and nine rebounds.

“I just tried to use my height as much as possible, and I got a lot of lay-ups out of it,” Huelman said.

In the first half, Fennelly played junior Desiree Francis less than a minute, while freshman Angie Welle logged only six minutes.

“I felt those kids were not ready to play. With Des, I saw she wasn’t ready at the shoot-around this afternoon. I told them at half-time that they would start out the second half, and if they played hard, they would play. If not, they would sit,” Fennelly said.

The two players answered the bell with authority, as Welle scored 13 points to finish with 15 for the game, and Francis again got the crowd excited with a 12-point, 10-rebound performance.

“To me that was the best thing that came out of the night. Those two answered the challenge and came out and played great,” Fennelly said.

Also playing well was Kelly Cizek, who finished the game with eight points and five rebounds in 26 minutes, a team-high.

Point guard Stacy Frese did not play due to an ankle injury but should be ready for the team’s huge contest against Louisiana Tech.

“She won’t be 100 percent, but she’s going to play and that’s all that matters. We need her on the floor, obviously,” Fennelly said.

Erica Haugen was solid again in relief of Frese, as she played all 20 minutes in the first half, and finished the game with five assists and three steals, to go along with only two turnovers.

“I think that although we miss having Stacy on the floor, Erica has done a great job. She’s really stepped up and done a tough job well,” Welle said.

The game, in which ISU never trailed, saw all 11 Cyclone players play at least 10 minutes.

The focus now will be on Louisiana Tech, the nation’s number two team.

“They are a great team. The coaches will prepare us for them as hard as they can, and if we can’t get up for this game, then there is something wrong with us,” Welle said.

“This is going to be the best team that any Iowa State team has ever faced. It’s a tremendous challenge for us. It’s not like it’s the World Series,” Fennelly said. “We don’t have to beat them four out of seven times, only once. Hopefully this will be the one.”