Unselfish play characterized the win against Southern for ISU women’s basketball Sunday.

Iowa State (4-3, 0-0 Big 12) defeated Southern (2-4, 0-0 SWAC) with an array of quick passes leading to quick buckets. The Cyclones more than doubled the Jaguars’ assist total, fueled by a team assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.625, a season-high.

Of the 28 buckets tallied by the Cyclones on Sunday, 26 resulted from assists. Junior Seanna Johnson led the charge in this area, distributing six assists to supplement her 12 points and 14 rebounds.

“We had 26 assists on 28 baskets,” said coach Bill Fennelly. “Some of that is having everyone being involved, but when you have an extra person besides Jadda [Buckley] that can distribute the ball to people who are open, that’s a good thing.”

Redshirt sophomore Jadda Buckley tallied five assists on the game and was one of five Cyclones who managed at least three assists. Buckley and Johnson have led the team in assists in six of its seven contests thus far, averaging a combined 9.4 assists per game.

As two of the more veteran players on the roster, Fennelly has relied on Johnson and Buckley to lead this young team — something the duo showed they were capable of Sunday.

“Seanna was Seanna, and Jadda was Jadda,” Fennelly said.

Carleton sidelined once again with mouth injury

Freshman Bridget Carleton missed her third straight game Sunday, still dealing with an injury sustained against Duke on Nov. 27.

Carleton took an elbow to the mouth early in the second game of the Cancun Challenge in Cancun, Mexico, and did not return for the remainder of the game. Shortly after the injury, Carleton received eight stitches at the hospital and has since had a root canal to further address the injury.

Although Carleton also sustained a concussion from the blow, her time away from the court is in large part due to the time needed to allow her mouth to heal. 

“Bridget’s made progress, but if we had a game tomorrow, she wouldn’t play,” Fennelly said. “But we don’t play until Friday. We’ve got our fingers crossed that Bridget can come in and contribute some.”

Since Carleton’s injury, Fennelly and the Cyclones have experimented with a couple of different lineups. Against Idaho and Northern Iowa, freshman TeeTee Starks replaced Carleton in the four-guard starting lineup. But against Southern, Fennelly started two forwards and three guards, starting freshman Meredith Burkhall and playing senior Nicole “Kidd” Blaskowsky off the bench.

“We’ve been practicing with a bunch of different lineups mainly because we don’t know our injury situation,” Fennelly said. “I would imagine we will probably go back to our normal starting lineup depending on how things go.”

Rivalry week

Iowa State will host Iowa (8-1, 0-0 Big 10) in the 12th installment of the annual Cy-Hawk series on Dec. 11. The Cyclones are 21-24 overall against the Hawkeyes dating back to Feb. 2, 1975, when the Cyclones defeated their in-state rivals in Iowa City, 65-47.

In recent history, the home team has claimed the majority of the success between the two programs. For eight straight years, the team that has hosted the rivalry game has won the game. The last time the visiting team claimed victory was in 2006, when Iowa State defeated Iowa in a high-scoring game, 80-74.

Perhaps this recent trend of homecourt advantage has held true during the past eight seasons because the rivals have been on fairly equal levels. However, Fennelly said, things may be different this time around.

“This series has been kind of interesting,” Fennelly said. “The home team wins a lot. This is the first time on paper that the visiting team is much better than the home team. So, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Fennelly also said that he and his players are motivated and “ready to go” for four days of practice before the Cy-Hawk game. Fennelly added that the week leading up to the Iowa game always changes his mood a bit.

“I’m usually so nice,” Fennelly said. “This week, I’m not as nice.”