Iowa State trailed for almost the entirety of the first quarter on Thursday against the Alabama Crimson Tide, as the Cyclones did not hold a lead in the first quarter at all.

However, the Cyclones outscored the Crimson Tide 57-48 to beat the Alabama Crimson Tide 75-66 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

The Cyclones are now 6-1 this season and the Crimson Tide are 5-3.

Junior points Rae Johnson and junior center Kristin Scott churned out some of their best performances of the season, which led the Cyclones to make two key scoring runs and beat the Crimson Tide.

Johnson set her season-high in assists and points

In only two games out of six this season, Johnson has dished out at least five assists in a game.

Against Alabama, Johnson dished out a season-high eight assists. 

Johnson came one assist shy of reaching her career-high of nine assists, which she set against the California-Riverside Highlanders on December 21, 2017. 

Before the game, Johnson had been averaging 4.1 assists, but now is averaging 4.7 assists per game.

To go along with a season-high in assists on Thursday, Johnson nearly scored a career-high in points.

Johnson scored 17 points, making Thursday’s game the first time this season that Johnson has scored at least 15 points and five assists in the same game. 

For the majority of the night, Johnson was the Cyclones’ primary facilitator.

Kristin Scott returned to form against the Crimson Tide

Scott, a 2019 All-Big 12 second-team player, has been dealing with a back injury so far in this early season. Because of that, she hasn’t played the minutes (on average) that she played last season and she hasn’t been averaging the same amount of points per game, that she had last season.

Last season, Scott averaged 12.8 points per game in 24 minutes per game. This season she’s been averaging 4.8 points per game in 17.1 minutes per game. 

Against the Crimson Tide, Scott scored 20 points, a team-high, on seven for 14 shooting, three for eight shooting from beyond the three-point and three for five shooting from the free-throw line. 

Scott also grabbed eight rebounds, which was tied for a team-high along with senior forward Ines Nezerwa.

This is the first time this season that Scott has scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds in the same game.

Her contributions scoring and on the glass were a part of a few key scoring runs that guided the Cyclones to victory.

Two late scoring runs led Cyclone to victory

Iowa State and Alabama were tied at 20 in the second quarter. However, the Cyclones took control of the game in the second quarter. Iowa State went on a 14-5 in eight minutes to take a 34-25 lead. 

In this run, Iowa State shot five from seven from the field and five different Cyclones scored in this stretch. 

The Cyclones lead by eight in the third quarter at 48-40 with just over three minutes left in the third quarter.

From there, the Cyclones went on another 14-5 scoring run and held a 58-43 lead, their largest of the night, just as the third quarter was coming to a close. 

With the Cyclones only winning the game by nine, these two scoring runs proved to be a major reason why they came out on top against the Crimson Tide.