Coming into the game against No. 5 Texas Tech, Iowa State Coach Bill Fennelly said that his team would need to make a lot of shots to be in the game.

The Cyclone women responded to their coach’s cry for points and defeated the Lady Raiders 82-73, earning them the first-place seat in the Big 12.

“I want to thank our fans, they were incredible,” Fennelly said. “We needed to make our threes to keep the crowd in the game. They kept our players going when they got tired. I think our women experienced some Hilton magic tonight.”

The Cyclones set an all-time ISU record by making 14 three-pointers on just 24 attempts, for a blistering 58 percent.

Stacy Frese fulfilled her post as the Cyclone army general with seven threes on her way to a career-high 24 points. Possibly the most important of those shots was one giving ISU a six-point lead with only 50 seconds remaining.

“I told Stacy that these are games that you dream about, with their zone packing it in they way they did,” Fennelly said.

“I told her coming into the game if she didn’t shoot at least 10 threes she wasn’t looking for her shot,” he said. “She hit some big shots when we were struggling to just stay in the game early.”

In the first half, Texas Tech’s All-American Alicia Thompson was on fire. She scored 17 points on 7 of 10 shooting, including two three-pointers.

“(Thompson) was unstoppable in the first half,” Janel Grimm said. “She was just rising up and shooting over us. In the second half we just weren’t giving her good looks at the baskets.”

Frese got the ISU squad going early, matching Thompson basket for basket and scoring 14 in the first half.

Meanwhile, the Texas Tech zone corralled the Cyclone’s leading scorers Grimm and Jayme Olson.

Lady Raider Coach Marsha Sharp said, “Frese played extremely well and she shot the lights out. We tried to extend the zone against Frese, and they did a nice job of getting the ball inside and hitting their cutters.”

Frese wasn’t the only one taking advantage of the zone. Freshman Megan Taylor, on her way to 20 points, and Amanda Bartz made a combined seven three-pointers.

Bartz made all four of her three-point attempts, including one at the buzzer that allowed the Cyclone team to leave the hardwood at the half only down by two, 35-33.

“That was a big momentum swing,” Taylor said. “It made you feel like the things that had gone wrong in the first half had just went away, and we came out in the second half and just continued to make shots.”

After the intermission, both teams made needed adjustments, but perhaps the most important of these was how ISU dealt with Thompson.

Sharp said that ISU upped its concentration on Thompson.

She said, “They were challenging us to shoot outside. They had one [defender] on her and two waiting, which opened up some shots for Julie [Lake.]”

Lake scored all of her 17 points in the second half. She was 6 of 14 from the field, including one three-pointer.

Thompson said, “It was a great opportunity for others to make shots. We worked so hard, and in that situation, they had the hot hand and there was no solution.”

Still, Thompson managed to score in double figures for the 53rd consecutive game.

With the Cyclone guards bombing away from the outside, things opened up down low for Grimm and Olson.

They were held to just five first-half points, but the two stepped up in the second stanza. Grimm finished the contest with 14, while Olson tallied 12.

Of the 27 baskets scored by ISU, 24 were assisted. Grimm had six dishes, while Taylor, Olson and Frese all had five. ISU also committed a season-low nine turnovers.

Grimm said, “We did a wonderful job of moving the ball. Not necessarily forcing the ball, but getting it to them in a position where they could score.”

The Cyclone women travel to Missouri for conference competition Saturday afternoon. They will be trying to improve on their 16-2 record overall and 5-0 in the conference.

“We now have to go down and beat the Missouri’s,” Grimm said. “That will be tough because everyone will be gunning for us.”

Olson said, “This is a great feeling. We are going to have to go out to work harder to stay on top.”

Fennelly said, “It sticks us out there a little farther, but that’s why we come out here and play. If you aren’t playing for first when that spot is available, you shouldn’t be out there.”