The dust has been wiped from the seats and pre-season team practices have, for the most part, been completed as the 1996-97 edition of the Cyclone women’s basketball team made their exhibition season debut by knocking off a very tall Latvia-Lithuania team 84-71 Monday evening at James H. Hilton Coliseum.

“The most important thing is to turn on the lights, put on the uniforms and work on our game day preparations,” said Cyclone Women’s Basketball Coach Bill Fennelly.

But the Cyclones did more than just turn on the lights and put on the uniforms as the Iowa State squad shot 53 percent from the floor, while pulling down 59 rebounds in their winning effort.

Junior forward Jayme Olson got the team out of the blocks quickly by scoring 18 first-half points before finishing the game with 23. The Cyclone forward also pulled down eight rebounds in the 29 minute effort.

Janel Grimm, a junior forward starting alongside Olson, posted her first double-double effort since their game against Texas-San Antonio in the Lobo Classic held at Albuquerque, New Mexico on Dec. 1, 1995, with her 14-point, 14-rebound effort.

Senior guard Tara Gunderson added 13 points to the Cyclone score, including nine points from behind the arc. Gunderson also added six assists and pulled down five rebounds.

Despite the win, Fennelly and the Cyclones found several things they want to work on before the regular season opener at Minnesota on Nov. 24.

“We have to work on our transition defense and we were a little lax in putting (scoring) runs together,” the head coach said.

“However, this is a good first game.”

“As always, we have to work on our one-on-one perimeter defense,” Fennelly said.

Gunderson agrees that things must improve before the season opener.

“We have a lot of things to work on,” she said.

“For example, if we have subs in the game, we can’t let up. We also need to execute better because we should have won the game by more than what we did.”

But the Cyclones have several areas to build around.

“Offensively we played very aggressively,” the coach said. “And in spurts we went to the offensive boards, which is something we didn’t do last year.”

Several Cyclones made their collegiate debut against the Latvian club Monday evening. Guards Amanda Bartz and Cris Shelton as well as forward Monica Huelman made their debuts.

In fact, Huelman found herself in the starting lineup replacing injured forward Kim Martin. Martin has missed the preseason with an injured disk in her back.

Fennelly hopes to have Martin back to play a few minutes against the Golden Gophers.

“Monica was a presence in the middle tonight,” Fennelly said. “She runs the floor well and is a good offensive player.”

“Like any freshman forward, she needs to learn to move her feet, but she gives us a lot of good things,” Fennelly said.

“She has a good personality for the game. For instance, if she falls down on the court, she gets up and laughs, unlike a lot of freshmen who will stay down because they are embarrassed.”

Huelman finished the game with a nine-point, five-rebound effort.

Shelton, a 5-foot-4 inch guard from Chicago came off of the bench to provide the Cyclones with an aggressive defender despite her height.

“She (Shelton) has a point guard mentality,” Fennelly said. “She has good foot speed and gives us a different dimension like Martin (does) at small forward. She needs a little bit of work, but could have a big impact with this team yet this season.”

Shelton managed to post a six-point, two-assist effort, while playing 17 minutes in her debut.

Bartz, despite shooting 0-for-8 from the field, posted a solid game by grabbing four rebounds, including three from the offensive end of the floor, while playing 14 minutes.

“Amanda had freshman jitters and she is going to be fine,” Fennelly said.

Olson was proud of the effort put forth by all of the freshmen in their opening game.

“It is a whole other intensity level and the freshmen did a nice job tonight,” Olson said. “They did a good job with their adjustments.”

The Lithuanian squad had a mixture of ages on their squad, ranging from 29-year-old center Olga Kartjanovic, to a pair of 17-year-olds in forwards Infrida Dominauskaite and Biruta Morozaite.

Kartjanovic, a 6-foot-5 inch center, powered the foreign team with a 20-point, nine-rebound effort.

Kartjanovic’s height was not uncommon for the 10-player team as all of their players were over 5-foot-10, and six were over 6 feet tall.

Despite the height, the team lacked depth, which was displayed when Dominauskaite exited the game while fouling out with 13:31 left in the second half.

Also scoring in double figures for the Latvian squad were Liga Krinberga with 12 points by scoring all of her points from behind the arc.

Inguna Markune managed to score 11 points, while Morozaite added 10.

Diana Anuziene added 10 points to the foriegner’s balanced scoring attack.

Iowa State will next be in action at Hilton Coliseum on Monday, Nov. 24 in their second, and final exhibition game of the season against the Dream Builders.