The Iowa State University women’s basketball team gained some much needed confidence Saturday afternoon with their victory over the visiting Texas A&M Lady Aggies in James H. Hilton Coliseum.

The Cyclones (10-8,3-5 in the Big 12) won by the score of 79-51 in front of the season’s second largest crowd to stop a four game losing streak.

Iowa State received a balanced scoring attack, which saw four layers score atleast 14 points and 66 of the team’s 79 points.

Junior forward Janel Grimm opened the game with the team’s first eight points and 11 of the team’s first 16. Grimm finished with a game-high 19 points, while adding five rebounds, three assists, a steal and a blocked shot.

“I was feeling good tonight after making the first shot,” Grimm said.

Junior Jayme Olson continued to be one of the most consistent players on the team with her 17 point, nine rebound performance. The junior also dished three assists while making a steal and blocking a shot.

Senior guard Tara Gunderson added 16 points, while having a team-high seven assists and four steals.

“We decided to take whatever frustration we had (from Thursday night) out on our next opponent,” Gunderson said.

Thursday night, the team was handed its worst defeat of the season with a 76-52 loss to the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

The final Cyclone in double figures was senior guard Kim Martin. Martin displayed her old self from last season with her slashing, aggressive style while posting a season-high 14 points.

The senior guard was 8-of-10 from the free throw line, while adding six assists and a pair of steals for the Cyclones.

“It’s about time, it has been along time coming,” Martin said. “I have gotta figure out a way to score.”

Iowa State women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly was able to clear the bench in the 28 point victory. All but three of the 13 Iowa State scholarship players managed to score.

The Lady Aggies (7-12, 1-8) saw their last lead at 16:46 left in the first half after a layup by Amy Yates with the score at 7-6.

Grimm’s three-foot, right-side jumper gave the Cyclones an 8-7 lead and Gunderson followed with a 10-foot jumper at the top of the key on the pick-and-roll play to move the lead to 10-7 and the Cyclones slowly took control.

Iowa State found themselves ahead at halftime by the score of 36-24, despite shooting 3-of-10 from the free-throw line.

“We talked about that at halftime,” Fennelly said. “We would have won by more if we would have made them. We haven’t been scoring a lot of points, so we can’t give away any free points.”

The players must have listened well because the Cyclones shot 12-of-13 in the second half from the free-throw line and 15-of-23 for the game.

Texas A&M never got closer than nine points in the second half, with the score 47-38 with 14:43 remaining.

However, the Cyclones found themselves in the bonus less than a minute later which allowed them to pull away.

The Cyclones shot 56 percent from the field (28-of-50) for the game, including 63.6 percent (14-of-22) in the second half, while stroking 50 percent from behind the three point arc.

Pacing the Cyclones from behind the arc were Gunderson and Olson with three apiece, while Grimm and sophomore guard Michelle Jensen each added another.

The Cyclones out rebounded the Lady Aggies by six with a 40-34 rebounding margin.

The Cyclones also had a season-high in assists with 23, while the Lady Aggies only tallied 11.

Iowa State also managed to block three shots. Besides the blocks by Grimm and Olson, freshman center Monica Huelman had the other. The Lady Aggies had one.

With the game Thursday night, the Cyclones had a short turnaround to prepare for the Lady Aggies, however, that didn’t bother the players.

“I was itching to get back out there,” Martin said.

“Because Thursday night’s performance was not a good predictor of our team,” she added.

“We definitely needed to play right away,” Olson said. “We had a lot of fun tonight and we needed to do that as a team.”

The Cyclones were able to prepare for the matchup without taking the court.

“A lot of it (preparation) was mental,” Gunderson said. “It was nice in the fact that their team’s style resembled Nebraska’s.”

“We watched film of the Nebraska game and then film on Texas A&M on Friday and the coaches decided not to take the court,” Gunderson said.

But the decision not to take the court won’t get any arguments from Olson.

“We definitely needed yesterday off, because we were emotionally and mentally drained after Thursday night,” Olson said.

The Lady Aggies also featured a balanced scoring attack which saw three players reach double figures in scoring.

Texas A&M was lead by freshman forward Kera Alexander with 12 points, while junior center Kim Linder and freshman guard Natalie Tucker each added 10.

The Lady Aggies shot 28.6 percent (16-of-56) from the field, their second-lowest shooting performance of the season.

However, it is the lowest in conference play, because the Lady Aggies shot 26.5 percent against the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

When asked if the victory was a big weight off of the team’s shoulders, Iowa State women’s head coach Bill Fennelly responded, “That’s a big understatement.”

“Thursday night was the low point of our season,” Fennelly said. “This was a game we had to have. I am proud of our kids, they had a lot of courage.”

Iowa State will now hit the road for three games beginning against the Baylor Bears on Wednesday, followed by Kansas on Saturday and Missouri a week from Tuesday.

The Cyclones next home game will be against the Kansas State Wildcats on Feb. 15.