The Iowa State women’s basketball team watched hopes of triple-overtime disappear as Colorado’s LaShena Graham made a buzzer-beating jump shot over Iowa State forward Jayme Olson to knock off the Cyclones 68-66 in James H. Hilton Coliseum Saturday evening.

“I never thought we were going to lose the game,” Olson said. “I thought they (Colorado) were just hanging on in the second-overtime.”

The double-overtime game was the first of its kind in Cyclone women’s basketball history.

“That was a great college basketball game,” said Bill Fennelly, Iowa State’s women’s head basketball coach. “I would like to thank the fans; they were tremendous tonight.”

Fennelly wasn’t alone in his praise of the ninth-largest women’s crowd in Cyclone history. Iowa State enticed 2,776 fans to Hilton.

“The crowd was great,” Cyclone forward Janel Grimm said. “I am an emotional player and with more people it is easier to play harder. I just want to let them know that we are going to come through.”

Olson agreed with Grimm’s assessment. “The crowd was huge. It makes all the difference. They make you have fun, and I hope they all come back.”

The top match-up of the evening pitted Olson against Colorado’s leading scorer in 6-foot, 2-inch senior forward Erin Scholz.

Olson managed to better Scholz in all but rebounds, as the Cyclone forward paced the team in scoring with 25, including 14 in the first 20 minutes of action.

Olson also rattled in four of six from behind the arc.

Scholz in turn, added 15 points, with most coming from rebounding her teammates misses while camping out in the paint.

She was tied for tops on the team with Graham, while grabbing 10 rebounds, dishing four assists and blocking three shots.

In regard to Olson’s rash of three-point goals, Olson said the philosophy wasn’t planned.

“I didn’t practice a lot of [three-pointers] this week,” she said.

“Monica [Huelman] stepped in and played a great game for us tonight. She opened up my outside shot,” Olson said.

Huelman added nine points for the Cyclones, while grabbing five rebounds in 34 minutes of play, which included the full 5 minutes of each overtime period.

Grimm tallied 22 points for the Cyclones and pulled down 13 rebounds, 12 of which came after the halftime intermission, to notch her third double-double of the season.

Iowa State went into the locker room with a one-point lead at halftime after Olson nailed two of her four three-point shots to bring the club back from five points down with 1:55 remaining.

The Buffaloes opened the second half with a three-point basket by guard Alexis Felts and never relinquished the lead until Grimm tied the game with a five-foot jumper in the lane with 17 seconds remaining in regulation.

The Colorado squad had a chance to win in regulation. After inbounding the ball, Colorado pushed upcourt and called a time-out with 13 seconds remaining. The Buffaloes held for the last shot, but missed, and Huelman grabbed the rebound to send the game into overtime with the score knotted at 53.

Iowa State scored first in the first extra session when Olson made a lay-up after an inbound play and was fouled in the process. The junior forward stepped to the line and made the free-throw, giving the Cyclones a 56-53 lead.

Graham managed to hit a three-pointer as the shot clock was winding down for the Buffaloes to give Colorado a 62-60 lead with 42 seconds remaining, when Olson came through for the Cyclones with a three-foot jump shot in the lane to tie the game at 62.

The Cyclones had a shot to win the game at the end of the first overtime period as senior guard Julie Hand stole a pass with about 5 seconds remaining.

Hand passed the ball to Gunderson, who brought it upcourt. Gunderson passed back to Hand who was waiting with an open three- point shot on the right wing.

Hand’s shot rattled in and out, sending the game into double-overtime.

“I thought it was in,” Olson said.

As a team, the Cyclones shot 39.3 percent (24-for-61) from the field, while shooting just 22.2 percent (4-for-18) from behind the arc.

Iowa State also nudged the Buffaloes on the glass with a 43-42 margin after trailing by two rebounds at the half.

Iowa State found itself at the charity stripe 18 times in the second half.

The Buffaloes, in turn, shot seven free throws, making just three.

Colorado countered Iowa State’s high-scoring tandem of Olson and Grimm by putting four players in double figures. Forwards Jen Terry and Lauri Weathers each had 10 points to go along with the 15 points scored by Graham and Scholz.

Center Reagan Scott ripped down a team high 11 rebounds, while adding six points.

Senior guard Tara Gunderson tallied six assists, while senior forward Kim Martin added six points and four assists before taking to the bench at the end of regulation because of the flu.

“Kim threw up in the locker room before the game,” Fennelly said. “I asked her if she could go before the first overtime began, and she said no.”

The Cyclones displayed an aggressive defense throughout the game, in which Colorado couldn’t muster a lead larger than seven points.

“We always seemed to be scrapping our way back into the game,” Fennelly said.

“But from where I was sitting, LaShena Graham made all the difference in the game.

“It wasn’t just because of the last shot either. She played tremendous defense on Gunny [Gunderson].

“Our team did everything we needed to do to win the game,” the coach said. “We just needed a closer.”

Graham became the closer for the Buffaloes with about 2 seconds remaining in the second overtime period.

She started at the top of the key, losing Gunderson on a pick, and turned toward the basket squaring up and shooting a short jump-shot, which bounced on the back of the iron and rattled around before dropping a split second after the buzzer sounded.

“She hit a tough shot,” Olson said.

“It just seemed to take forever for it to roll in.”

Fennelly points to missing three front ends of the one-and-one in the first overtime period as the turning point in the game.

Iowa State committed 19 turnovers in the 50-minute affair.

Despite the loss, Fennelly claimed a moral victory for the Cyclones because ISU was able to make every shot on their sideline out-of-bounds play.

“We made every one of them tonight,” Fennelly said. “We learned some hard lessons, but I am very proud of their effort. “They were hanging around and never gave up. We have always bounced back from disappointment. We will regroup and get after it.

“I said when I came here that if we work as hard as we can then we will give ourselves a chance to win in the end.

“And so far this season, we have always had a chance to win the game at the end. They had the last shot at the end of each period and we managed to hold them except for the last one,” he said. “Sometimes we can only go so far.

“Our season doesn’t end tonight, but this was a tough lesson to learn. Now we have to go on the road for two difficult games this week.

Iowa State will take on Kansas State on Wednesday before travelling to Texas Tech on Saturday.