After a long and emotional week, the Iowa State women’s basketball team came ready to play Thursday night against the visiting Drake Bulldogs. The Cyclones were overpowering in an 86-57 victory.

“You saw the true team characteristics tonight,” ISU Head Coach Bill Fennelly said. “Not just in the scoring, but as a team.”

As a team, the Cyclones held their opponent to 32 percent shooting from the field, while Iowa State shot almost 52 percent. The Cyclones outrebounded the taller Bulldogs by a 44-34 margin and managed to hold their low post players to a combined 19 points.

Meanwhile, the Cyclones found themselves with a balanced scoring attack, with 72 of their 86 points coming from the starting five of junior Jayme Olson, junior Janel Grimm, freshman Monica Huelman and seniors Tara Gunderson and Julie Hand.

Olson lead the Cyclone scorers with 26 points and five rebounds on 10 of 16 shooting from the field.

Olson was praised by Bulldog Head Coach Lisa Bluder.

“Olson had an outstanding game tonight,” she said.

Fennelly was also pleased with the junior forward. “Jayme will score a lot of points for us.

“She is tough to defend. She is like the Eveready rabbit. She just runs, runs, runs, runs.”

Huelman added 14 points and four rebounds.

While her counterpart, freshman Tammi Blackstone, managed nine points and four rebounds despite leaving the game with a mild sprained ankle with 8:56 remaining.

“If we get that kind of effort from Monica every game, I will be a very happy coach,” Fennelly said.

Gunderson added 12 points including a pair of three-point baskets for the Cyclones. The senior guard lead the team with seven rebounds, three steals and five assists.

She did, however, commit 11 turnovers.

“A lot of those turnovers can be credited to Drake’s defense,” Fennelly said.

“Keisha Cox plays a very aggressive defense and we didn’t always get back to help her as much as we should have.”

Grimm added 11 points and six rebounds. Hand rounded out the Cyclone starting five with nine points.

Drake was lead by Cox. The guard scored 13 points. She was the only Bulldog scorer with more than 10 points.

Bluder credited the Cyclone defense with the victory. “They did a great job defensively,” she said. “But we weren’t hitting our shots.”

Fennelly said the approach to tonight’s game was very different than the one against Northern Iowa Sunday.

“The team as a whole sat down and watched the film of the UNI game,” Fennelly said. “It kind of opened their eyes to see for themselves that they were being out hustled and out played.”

After returning from a one-point loss in Cedar Falls, the team had a meeting without coaches.

“It was a very emotional week,” Fennelly said. “The trip back from Cedar Falls seemed like it took 10 hours.

“I was really wobbling this week maybe more than the team,” Fennelly said. “Gene Smith talked to us; Tim Floyd talked to us; Dan McCarney called us and the swimming coach Trip Hedrick all called us this week and told us to hang in there.

“I don’t know how many wins we will get this year, but lets give the kids a little bit of credit. Very few teams have given them credit.”

Fennelly said the mood swing was huge.

“The swing tonight was probably the biggest I have ever seen since I have started coaching,” he said. “If they didn’t have pride, courage and respect, this wouldn’t happen.”

Iowa State will next be in action in the Pepperdine Tournament in Malibu, Calf., on Dec. 21 and 22.