After two straight losses and two straight poor shooting performances, both first-time occurrences for Iowa State this season, it seemed likely that shots would start to fall again for the 18th-ranked Cyclones soon enough. 

In the first half against Oklahoma on Saturday, it felt like everything Iowa State put up was falling. 

Powered by a 39-point first quarter and a season-high 63-point first half, the Cyclones blew past Oklahoma for a 104-78 win in a game that was competitive for all of about three minutes. By the time the Sooners scored their first basket, roughly 5:30 into the game, they were already facing a a 16-2 deficit that they could never cut into.

Iowa State kept pouring it on from there, and the score only got as colse as it did after Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly pulled his starters in the fourth quarter. After just the first quarter, the Cyclones were shooting 70 percent from the field and nearly 60 percent from three.

Obviously, that pace is nearly impossible to sustain and the Cyclones cooled down a bit as the game wore on.  But by the time the first half was finished, Iowa State had scored almost as many points in two quarters, 63, as it did in the entire game against West Virginia (and more than it scored in the entire game against Texas). 

“Our first half is really what carried us,” said sophomore Madison Wise. “Getting a good start is really important. We’ve been struggling with that a little bit. The reason why were were scoring so much is because we were getting stops and following the scouting report.”

Fennelly agreed with this assessment, saying that the team’s attention to detail on the defensive end led to open shots offensively.

“I’ve always told our players that the guy upstairs is a basketball fan,” Fennelly said. “You’re rewarded for effort, execution and doing the little things.”

If you only looked at the standings, this kind of blowout seems understandable on the surface. Oklahoma is a young team and the worst in the Big 12 in terms of overall record, possessing the conference’s only losing record at 5-11. 

On top of that, Iowa State is ranked in the top 20 and coming off of two straight tough losses in winnable games. From a pure record standpoint, it seemed likely that one of two things were going to happen: Iowa State was either going to come out flat in an early afternoon game against an inferior opponent, or the Cyclones were going to come out motivated blow the doors off of the Sooners. 

Ultimately, the latter ended up happening and Iowa State cracked triple digits for the first time in over two years as a result. With that being said, however,  the final score may be more of a surprise than one might initially realize. 

Coming into Saturday, Oklahoma had played some tough competition and, according to Fennelly, was better than their record showed. Among this competition included No. 2/3 UConn and No. 11 Texas. The Sooners managed to hang tough in those games, keeping both within 10 points. 

Additionally, Oklahoma had won the last six games between the two teams, leaving Fennelly a little in shock with how well things went.

“I think anytime you win in this league by the margin that we did, it’s a surprise,” Fennelly said. “Coach [Sherri] Coale does an amazing job. They play the game right. She’s in the hall of fame for a reason and they’ve beaten up on us for a reason. For our team to play the way we did today was really important.” 

Not only was the win important for getting back on track, but it was also important for the team’s confidence going into perhaps the toughest game of the season on Wednesday. That’s when the Cyclones will travel to Waco, Texas, to take on the No. 2 Baylor Bears.

While this was certainly one of the best games of the season for Iowa State, there’s still plenty to clean up. Specifically, the team has had a lot of trouble with fouling over the past few games, an issue that Fennelly said the team won’t get away with much longer.

Beyond that, the Bears have a winning pedigree and some of the top players in the country on their side, in addition to the home court advantage. For Iowa State to come away with the upset, it’ll take a near perfect effort from the team. 

And for the team to truly contend in the Big 12 going forward, players know that they can’t think too much about everything that went right on Saturday, and instead focus on what they can keep improving on.

“It’s really good when we can get a win after that little losing streak,” said freshman guard Ashley Joens. “To take it to the next level, we have to keep improving and take the mistakes from this game and learn from them so we can continue.”