With its last home win coming Dec. 28 against Kansas, the Iowa State women’s basketball team was desperate for a win at Hilton Coliseum. Well, the Cyclones got that win and did so in convincing fashion en route to a 69-57 win over Texas Tech. 

Here are three takeaways from the game. 

Canada heads south

Hilton Coliseum gets loud, but the Canadian accents coming from the crowd on Saturday weren’t hallucinations caught in the noise. In fact, it was the army of family and friends that trekked down from Canada to support junior Bridget Carleton. 

“A variety of people from all parts of my life came together,” Carleton said. “It’s special and it means a lot to me.”

The forty-ish Canadians in the stands powered Carleton to a 25-point performance, which in retrospect, is a low amount considering she attempted 19 shots. However, just nine of those went in and the rest of her points came from seven freebies from the charity stripe. 

Although the Canadian contingent didn’t see Carleton surpass her 26 points from the previous game, they did see the Chatham, Ontario, native continue her hot streak. Prior to the last two games, Carleton had a combined 25 points, which for her numbers, isn’t up to par. 

“She’s so proud to represent her country,” said Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly. “It just oozes out of her.”

If Carleton can keep up her streak, then maybe, just maybe, the Cyclones could make some noise in the Big 12 Tournament. 

Scott wastes little time

Freshman Kristin Scott only played 12 minutes against the Red Raiders, but she made the most of it. Scott scored six points, but grabbed an eye-popping nine rebounds. That’s an average of just a little under one rebound per minute. 

“Defensively we were solid,” Fennelly said. 

Scott was once the leading rebounder for the Cyclones and she also averaged heavy minutes early in the season. She still averages 5.8 rebounds, but her minutes have taken a significant hit. Scott played more than 10 minutes in just two of her last five games, although she was recovering from an injury. 

The freshman was once averaging over 10 minutes of playing time, and if she can get back to that and can post another performance like last night, then Fennelly might have his post player of the future. 

“Every kid on this team who has a chance to come back and can be better, the start of their next season is right now,” Fennelly said. 

At last, a win at home

It took nearly two months, but the Cyclones finally got another home win. Prior to Saturday’s game, Iowa State sat at a miserable 1-6 inside Hilton Coliseum in Big 12 games. 

Maybe all it took was a crowd dominated by Canadians or a heroic performance from Carleton and senior Emily Durr, but they finally got it. And leading up to the game, senior Claire Ricketts went as far as to say the fans don’t deserve to see Iowa State lose at home. 

“I think we’re just feeding off each other really well,” Durr said. “We know we need to be good.”

And Fennelly even joked that maybe the team would even wear the red road jerseys. For what it’s worth, they went with white. With this game included, Iowa State had two more chances for one last win at home. 

However, Texas Tech was a lot less daunting then Iowa State’s next opponent at Hilton Coliseum, which is Texas. Before Texas, the Cyclones will have a chance to avenge an earlier loss to Oklahoma. 

“We really don’t [think about our record],” Fennelly said. “This group has really had to be really resilient.”