In what may have been the biggest game of the season to this point, the Iowa State women’s basketball team dominated and came away with a crucial win.

The Cyclones (15-11, 6-9 Big 12) led by as many as 21 as they dismantled West Virginia (18-9, 6-9 Big 12) by a final score of 68-53.

Over its past four games, Iowa State has three wins, with the lone loss coming at No. 25 Kansas State. With sights still set on the NCAA Tournament in March, Iowa State needed a strong performance on Saturday if it wanted to stay alive.

And did Iowa State perform.

The Cyclones took a 17-7 lead after the first quarter, thanks to a stout defensive showing. West Virginia hit just 3-of-16 field goal attempts and scored just four points over the final 9:30 of the quarter.

Give them a lot of credit, they played hard.” West Virginia coach Mike Carey said. “[Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly] has done a heck of a job with that team.”

The Cyclones took a three-point lead into the halftime break as the Mountaineers’ shots started to fall.

The second half, however, was all Iowa State.

Iowa State’s lead quickly grew to 14 after just three and a half minutes in the second half. The Cyclones were hitting 3-pointers, getting tough rebounds, and sharing the ball.

Jadda Buckley had game-highs with 20 points and eight assists. She hit a pair of big 3-pointers to extend the Iowa State lead, and went 6-for-6 at the free throw line.

“This is huge because obviously we have to get wins in order to make the tournament,” Buckley said. “And a big win like this, especially sweeping West Virginia since we got the win down there, that’s really gonna help us in the long run.”

Iowa State won the second half, 39-27. West Virginia shot just 9-for-31 in the second half and turned the ball over seven times.

After holding West Virginia to just 30 percent shooting in game one, Iowa State held them to 31.7 percent shooting Saturday.

“I thought defensively we were pretty good,” Fennelly said. “We had a similar plan to what we did at West Virginia, but you’ve got to pick your spots. [Lanay] Montgomery is a pro, she’s a hard cover, and I thought Heather [Bowe] and [Meredith Burkhall] did as good as they could.”

Burkhall chipped in seven points, 10 rebounds and a big block on a Montgomery post move.

Moving forward, Iowa State knows it has to keep winning to keep its NCAA Tournament dream alive.

“We need to win the games we know we can win,” guard Bridget Carleton said. “Going to Kansas we have to play well, we have to play well in all the games to complete the Big 12 season and the Big 12 tournament is going to be important. We just have to bring our best every day and that starts in practice.”

With just three games left in the Big 12 season, Iowa State still has an outside shot at going 9-9, but with a game at top-10 ranked Texas still to go, 8-10 seems to be a more realistic goal.

“It’s a possibility,” Fennelly said. “There’s a chance. If we win our last three games, we’re going to the NCAA Tournament.

“But that’s three very tough games ahead of us, but we do have a chance.”

Fennelly said there are some teams playing for seeding, some teams playing just to finish out the year, and a lot of teams in the middle trying to make the NCAA Tournament.

“We’ve talked a lot about the story this team is gonna try and write,” Fennelly said. “I’ve joked with them and you guys that I’ve sat through a lot of bad movies but if the ending is good, that’s what you remember.

“Our ending has got to be better, and I thought this week — I think it was maybe the biggest week of the season for us and to the kids’ credit, I thought they handled it fantastically.”