Iowa State tries for third sweep of the season against Sooners

Iowa+State+freshman+Lexi+Donarski+%28No.+21%29+goes+up+for+a+layup+against+Texas+Tech+on+Feb.+6+at+Hilton+Coliseum.

Wesley Winterink

Iowa State freshman Lexi Donarski (No. 21) goes up for a layup against Texas Tech on Feb. 6 at Hilton Coliseum.

Megan Teske

Three days after Iowa State got its second sweep in conference play of the season against Texas Tech, the Cyclones will travel to Norman, Oklahoma, to try to get their third sweep of the season Tuesday.

Iowa State has already taken down Oklahoma once this season in a thrilling 64-63 nail-biter back on Jan. 19 at Hilton Coliseum that saw the Sooners leading for much of the second half until junior guard Ashley Joens scored with 10 seconds left to give the Cyclones the win.

Iowa State Head Coach Bill Fennelly said after the Texas Tech game Saturday that Oklahoma is playing really well and Iowa State has to be a lot better defensively with their attention to detail.

“They always guard us really well, they’re a hard team to guard because they play small, they shoot the three a lot, they’ve been playing at a high level,” Fennelly said. “… offensively they are as good as anyone and we’ve got to be a lot better defensively with our attention to detail and hopefully offensively have a little more flow than we did the first time we played them.”

Against the Sooners in January, the Cyclones shot 40.3 percent in field-goal percentage and were 6-15 (40 percent) from beyond the arc.

Iowa State shot 48.5 percent from the field and 34.8 percent in 3-pointers against Texas Tech, with the Cyclones getting 50 points in the paint Saturday.

Fennelly said the game plan for the Texas Tech game was to be more aggressive and the Cyclones embraced that, so Iowa State may continue to rely more on the driving lane to get the leg up on a strong Oklahoma team.

In their last game against Baylor, the Cyclones struggled to rebound, getting out-rebounded 51-26. The next two games, Iowa State got out-rebounded by West Virginia 38-42 and then out-rebounded Texas Tech 44-30.

Against West Virginia, the rebounding improved, but Iowa State then had difficulty with shooting, shooting 34.4 percent from the field and 28.2 percent from three.

After the Texas Tech game, Fennelly said from start to finish they probably couldn’t have been much better on offense but the defense was just OK.

“Defensively I thought we were kind of lax at times and let them do a couple of things,” Fennelly said. “… the disappointing part for me was the fouls, we’ve just gotta be better, we can guard a lot of stuff but we can’t guard the free-throw line and we harp on that all the time… we gotta be better at that.”

The Cyclones will look to put together a complete performance against a team that almost beat them at home to get their third sweep of the season when Iowa State takes on Oklahoma at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Norman, Oklahoma.