The Iowa State women’s basketball team played host to conference rival Nebraska Cornhuskers Thursday evening, a battle in which the Cyclones fell for the third straight game losing to the Huskers 76-52.

The loss was the Cyclones largest of the season, moving the team record to 9-8, 2-5 in the Big 12 conference. Nebraska now moves to 16-1 overall, 6-1 in the conference.

The Cyclones were unable to stop Anna DeForge, who scored 29 points, shooting 9-of-10 from the free throw line and 10-of-14 from the floor.

The game saw Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly take an early exit as he was tossed from the game with 1:24 remaining in the second half. The head coach took to the floor after a foul on junior forward Jayme Olson. Upon doing so, the coach received his first technical foul.

He calmly approached referee Sue Kennedy and said a few words before heading towards the exit doors.

After leaving Kennedy, he received his second technical foul. As Fennelly left the court, he slammed the door behind him and the crowd of 1,403 roared to life for a few minutes.

Cornhusker guard Anna DeForge stepped to the line and made six straight free throws putting the Huskers ahead 72-52.

DeForge again stepped to the line after a Cris Shelton foul, hitting both.

Senior forward Tina McClain made a lay-up for the final score.

“It (the technical foul) wasn’t a key, it was over,” Nebraska head coach Angela Beck said. “He is smarter than that, he knew the game was over.”

A major factor in the loss was that the tempo of the game didn’t favor the Cyclones. The Huskers finished off the Cyclones with a 16-0 run over the final 3:18.

“Our whole philosophy was not to play their game,” Jayme Olson said. “We would be running our stuff and then all of a sudden we would be playing their type of game.”

Beck said the Huskers had a great respect for the Cyclones.

“This was a big win for us,” she said. “I was really proud of our team, we respect the Cyclones a lot.”

“We treated this game like a Big 12 championship game,” Beck said. “We totally controlled the second half of the game. I think our pressure wore (Tara) Gunderson down.”

“Our philosophy was to take away their inside game,” Beck said. “We were somewhat effective with that.”

Iowa State was lead in scoring by the junior forward tandem of Jayme Olson and Janel Grimm.

Olson scored 18 points in the game along with five rebounds and four assists. Of her 18 points, 12 came from behind the three-point arc.

“Olson is a hard kid to defend,” Beck said.

Grimm added 15 points in the effort, while pulling down seven rebounds and an assist.

Gunderson was third in scoring for the team with nine points, however, she was one-of-six from behind the arc and committed nine turnovers in 40 minutes of action. Gunderson also added six assists and got three steals.

Despite the score, the game wasn’t lopsided for the whole affair.

“We played a close game for 35 minutes,” Beck said. “They made us play quarter court offense for most of the game.”

The game saw Iowa State set several lows for the season, with points scored and rebounds.

Iowa State shot 34.1 percent (14-of-51) from the field and 29.2 percent (7-of-24) from behind the three-point line in the loss.

The Cyclones were able to step to the free throw line more often then in the previous two ball games, hitting 17-of-20 from the charity stripe.

Senior swingman Kim Martin stepped up for the Cyclones contributing five points and a pair of blocks in 17 minutes of action for the Cyclones.

In one of her blocks, Martin traveled the distance of the floor and was fouled by LaToya Doage, sending Martin to the line to hit a couple of free throws and giving the Cyclones an early lead at 12-8.

Iowa State trailed at half 32-26, behind the balanced scoring of Jayme Olson, Janel Grimm and Gunderson. The three combined for 22 of the team’s 26 first half points.

The Cyclones opened the first half behind the shooting of Grimm. The junior forward tossed in Iowa State’s first five points to give the team a 5-2 lead.

The Cyclones lead by the score of 16-10 with 11:27 remaining, however a rash of turnovers and a bout of cold shooting led to a 13-2 Cornhusker run over an eight minute span of time.

However, Olson and the Cyclones struck back. After an official time-out, Olson hit two straight three-point attempts to bring the Cyclones to within five with a 29-24 deficit, with 2:17 remaining.

Iowa State had 12 first half turnovers compared to the Huskers 11 at the half.

The Cornhuskers presented a balanced scoring attack in which nine of the ten players who saw time in the first half scored.

Anna DeForge, the Cornhuskers leading scorer coming into the game, lead the Huskers with seven first half points.

The Cyclones will next be in action against the Texas A&M Aggies, Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. at James H. Hilton Coliseum.