The Northern Iowa women’s basketball team found out what happens to a team that lets Iowa State get the ball inside to their post players.

As Dennis Hopper said in those shoe commercials, “bad things happen, man, bad things.”

Sophomore center Jayme Olson scored 28 points, 20 coming in the first half, and fellow sophomore forward Janel Grimm put in 18 while leading the Cyclones to a 96-66 victory over the Panthers at Hilton Coliseum on Wednesday night.

“(The ISU guards) did a nice job of getting the ball inside tonight,” Olsen said. “All the post players were ready to go from the start.”

ISU dominated the game early and opened up a double digit lead, 15-4, four minutes and 12 seconds into game on a three-point basket by Grimm outside the top-of-key. Olson alone outscored UNI, 10-2, to increase the Cyclones’ lead to 37-16 with 6:51 to go until the half. The only suspense for the rest of the contest was whether Iowa State would break the 100-point mark or not.

The only bright spot for the Panthers on the night was Shannan Kadner, a 6-feet 1-inch sophomore center from Conrad. Kadner worked her way inside for 20 points, on 9-14 shooting. She also pulled down five rebounds and had a steal.

“(Kadner is a) strong player and we needed to identify her on defense,” Olson said. “I thought we did a good job of identifying her, but she just made some tough shots.”

Iowa State looked well on its way to breaking the century mark after sophomore forward Rhonda Fisher sank a short jumper in the lane to put the Cyclones ahead, 91-52, with 7:20 to go. But Iowa State would be outscored, 14-5, the rest of the way in posting the 30-point victory.

First-year UNI coach Tony DiCecco was impressed by the improvement of the Cyclones under fellow first-year coach Bill Fennelly. DiCecco has seen Iowa State play during the past couple seasons while an assistant coach at Creighton.

“This is the best Iowa State team I’ve seen as far as playing together,” DiCecco said. “‘When you play quality players, such as Olson and Grimm, you need to get into good position, and we didn’t.”

The Cyclones are out to a 5-0 start, the first time they have broken out such a good beginning since the 1975-76 season. DiCecco expressed his admiration for the job Fennelly has done in his rookie season with the Cyclones.

“Bill is doing a great job,” he said. “His kids are playing really hard.”

Fennelly was not shy in praise for his super frontcourt players Grimm and Olson.

“Tonight, Janel and Jayme went 17 for 21(on field-goal shooting), you don’t get much better than that,” he said.

The Cyclones shot a scorching 63 percent from the field for the game and seemed to be unstoppable in getting the ball to the inside players.

“We got some really good looks at the basket, and we made our shots,” Fennelly said.

Fennelly seemed less excited about his team’s upcoming schedule. The Cyclones go on the road for 10 straight games, including the first two Big Eight Conference games at Oklahoma State and Oklahoma.

“We needed to play well tonight, and we did, now we need to go on the road and play really well,” Fennelly said. “Hopefully when it (the road trip) is over, we will still be breathing.”