Cyclones run away from Arkansas-Pine Bluff with strong shooting

Iowa+State+guard%2Fforward+Ashley+Joens+reads+the+court+against+the+Texas+Southern+womens+basketball+team+at+their+game+Nov.+7+at+Hilton+Coliseum.+The+Cyclones+won+79-59.

Iowa State guard/forward Ashley Joens reads the court against the Texas Southern women’s basketball team at their game Nov. 7 at Hilton Coliseum. The Cyclones won 79-59.

Jack Shover

Iowa State (4-1) beat Arkansas-Pine Bluff (0-5) 90-40 on Saturday behind strong Cyclone scoring performances.

Iowa State shot well during the game and had strong offensive performances from Ashley Joens, Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw, Kristin Scott and Ines Nezerwa.

Joens scored 20 points, which is her fourth 20-plus point performance this season and had eight rebounds and five steals. Joens went 8-10 on free throws.

Joens has shown a knack this season for getting to the free-throw line with 34 percent of her points this season coming from the charity stripe. Joens is averaging nine trips to the line and eight makes a game this season, with the next best player averaging three attempts and 2.6 makes a game in Espenmiller-McGraw.

Espenmiller-McGraw set several career highs against the Golden Lions including points, rebounds, assists and three pointers made.

Espenmiller-McGraw, a freshman, scored 15 points, had nine assists, six rebounds and shot 60 percent from the field (2-4 from three). She has been struggling to shoot the three all season and in one game, Espenmiller-McGraw was able to double her three point makes.

With that being said, Espenmiller-McGraw did have five turnovers.

Also making an impact on the offense, were Nezerwa with 14 points and Scott with 11 points and eight rebounds.

As a team, the Cyclones shot 50 percent from the field and 39.1 percent from three all while holding the Golden Lions to shooting 25.4 percent from the field.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff struggled shooting all night and during the third quarter, Pine Bluff only converted one shot from the floor.

Iowa State’s next opponent is New Orleans (2-4), with the game set to start at 1 p.m. in Ames on Sunday.