Iowa State grinds out a victory over South Dakota in its season opener

Rae Johnson, guard, tries to control the ball during the Iowa State versus Wisconsin-La Crosse game on Nov. 5. The Cyclones won 93-50.

Garrett Kroeger
November 10, 2017

There is no question that Bridget Carleton is the Iowa State women’s basketball team’s best player. But on Friday afternoon in Hilton Coliseum against the South Dakota Coyotes, Carleton had probably the three worst quarters of her career.

In the first half, Carleton sat for most of it due to foul trouble. Then after three quarters, the junior only scored five points.

“I didn’t have the best three quarters of my career,” Carleton said. “I definitely don’t like sitting. I told coach Fennelly that I’m fine, I can play. But he is smart, he doesn’t want me in too much foul trouble.”

The Cyclones’ season opener was not pretty to say the least. Iowa State turned the ball over 22 times and committed 18 fouls. However, despite the ugliness, they still found a way to win.

The Cardinal and Gold fought out a victory over the visiting Coyotes, 81-76.

“[South Dakota is] an outstanding team,” said coach Bill Fennelly. “Very well coached. Really, really hard to play against.”

While South Dakota is a hard team to play in the first place, it probably didn’t help that Iowa State had to rely on four newcomers to squeak out the victory.

Before Friday’s match-up, freshmen Rae Johnson, Madison Wise, and Kristin Scott, along with JUCO transfer Bride Kennedy-Hopoate had never played a single minute of meaningful collegiate basketball. At the end of the contest, Johnson, Wise, Scott, and Kennedy-Hopoate played 33, 35, 24, and 17 minutes respectively.

Not only that, but at one point, Carleton was playing with all four of them at the same time.

“You look out [at the court], and [Carleton] is playing with three freshman and a JUCO kid,” Fennelly said. “Until noon today, they have never played a Division I minute.”

Due to the fact the Cyclones did rely on a lot of newcomers, Iowa State found itself in a hole toward the of the second quarter and throughout the third.

The Coyotes would capture the lead at the 1:09 mark in the second quarter and would relinquish it at the 6:40 mark in the fourth.

Now, there were a variety of reasons why Iowa State found itself down by at least eight at one point in the game. Carleton and sophomore Adriana Camber were in foul trouble and Emily Durr, who is one of only two seniors on the team, left the game due to a knee injury, and turnovers put the Cyclones in the hole.

But then Carleton “put the team on her back” in the fourth quarter.

“I thought in the fourth quarter, it was kind of like one of those NBA games like here give Bridget [Carleton] the ball,” Fennelly said. “And get the hell out of her way and let her make a play.”

In the last quarter, Carleton was making all the right plays as Fennelly put it.

In the fourth, Carleton tallied 19 of her 24 total points. But she wasn’t just a scoring machine, Carleton was also creating space for players like Kennedy-Hopoate, Johnson, and Wise to score.

“Some kids would be like ‘No I’m not going to do that. I’m going to do this on my own because I don’t trust who I’m playing with,’” Fennelly said. “That’s not Bridget [Carleton’s] mentality. That’s not the way she plays.

“[Carleton] is special. And I thought the fourth quarter was really, really special”

Carleton also found Camber for a wide open three pointer with 40 seconds left in the game, which proved to be the dagger.

“It felt good right away,” Camber said on here three pointer.

While Carleton will get the majority of the credit for Iowa State’s win, it was still an all around team effort.

Wise and Johnson both chipped in 10 points each, while Camber tallied nine points. And Scott grabbed nine rebounds.

Iowa State will need to clean up some things before its next contest. However, according to Fennelly, it won’t need to clean up its effort and he is proud of that. He is also proud to have coached the Cyclones during this game.

“I can tell you this is one of the all-time favorite games I have been apart of because of how they had to do it,” Fennelly said. “You play freshmen 92 minutes. Your point guard gets hurt. You are in foul trouble, you’re losing. To figure out a way to win the game is something I am very, very proud of.”