The Iowa State women’s basketball team was able to gain a little revenge Sunday evening as they knocked off the Nebraska Cornhuskers 57-55 in Lincoln, Neb. The victory was the Cyclones’ fourth consecutive win and fifth of the last six games.

The Cyclones, now 15-9 and 8-6 in the Big 12 conference, were able to avenge a January 30 defeat to the Cornhuskers by the score of 76-52.

“I am really proud of the the way the kids responded to success,” Iowa State Head Coach Bill Fennelly said. “They were able to stay the course.”

The Cyclones found three players with double figures and a fourth with eight points.

Junior forward Janel Grimm paced the Cyclones with 17 points, while grabbing seven rebounds and blocking a shot in 35 minutes of action.

Grimm hit the winning basket for the Cyclones.

“Janel grabbed an offensive rebound with three seconds remaining and put it back in for the win,” Fennelly said.

Senior guard Tara Gunderson found herself scoring 14 points, including four three-point shots, while dishing out a team-high four assists.

Junior forward Jayme Olson added 12 points, grabbed a team-high eight rebounds and blocked a shot. Olson also hit two of five from behind the arc.

Senior guard Julie Hand contributed eight points, grabbed five rebounds and handed out three assists in 32 minutes of action.

Iowa State managed to hit 36.5 percent (19-of-52) from the field despite hitting 26.9 percent (7-of-26) in the first half.

The Cyclones trailed at the half by the score of 30-26.

“We got down 17-4 in the first half,” Fennelly said.

“We couldn’t make a shot in the first half. Considering [that] we were playing on the road and having a poor shooting night, [and] trailing by four, we felt we were in good shape.”

After the intermission, the Cyclones opened the second half with a flurry. The Cyclones managed to take the lead and stretch it out to nine points early in the second half.

“We played really well in the first five minutes of the second half,” Fennelly said.

“We got out to a nine point lead and they came back and got the crowd into the game.”

In fact, the crowd was quite large. Over 7,000 fans filled the Bob Devaney Sports Center to root on the Cornhuskers. Iowa State had a 35-32 rebounding edge, including 17 offensive rebounds.

“When we rebound well we play a lot better,” Fennelly said.

Leading the Cornhuskers in scoring was junior forward Anna DeForge. DeForge scored 20 points on four-of-seven shooting from behind the arc. She also had five rebounds and three assists in the Cornhusker loss.

“Anna DeForge is a great player and she pretty much did what she wanted to,” Fennelly said. “She is an all-conference player.”

Nebraska hit 19-of-49 from the field (38.8 percent).

Fennelly said Iowa State played well defensively.

“We were pretty solid. We were committed to what we were doing,” Fennelly said. “When we got down by four [in the second half] we did a solid job guarding the ball and not fouling.”The victory looms large for the Cyclones in several areas.

“It is big in the sense that it gives us our fourth road win in the conference,” Fennelly said.

“We had a 26 point turn around because they beat us by 24 at home.”

The four conference road victories are a school record.

Fennelly considers the losses to Nebraska and the University of Northern Iowa as the low points of the season.

UNI defeated the Cyclones by the score of 74-73 on Dec. 8 in the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.

“They have always bounced back from adversity,” Fennelly said. “We were able to re-evaluate ourselves and we played with a great sense of pride.”

Fennelly said of the previous loss to Nebraska, “It was a conference game, a home game and we had three of four road games ahead. It was a tough stretch and we responded well. After that game we were 2-5 and they [Nebraska] were 6-1, and now we are both 8-6.”

The Cyclones only loss in the past six games has been to then number 12 Kansas Jayhawks by the score of 82-76 in Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas.

Next action will be tonight against the Oklahoma State Cowgirls in James H. Hilton Coliseum, the last home game of the season. Tip off will be at 7 p.m.