Dayton Flyers fly past Cyclones in first round of NCAA tournament

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Kelby Wingert/Iowa State Daily

Senior guard Brynn Williamson looks for a teammate to inbound the ball to during the game against Oklahoma State in the third game of the 2015 Big 12 Championship in Dallas, Texas. The Cyclones fell to the Cowgirls 67-58.

Chris Wolff

The Dayton Flyers (26-6) flew past the ISU women’s basketball team (18-13) in the first round of the NCAA tournament by a score of 78-66 to end the Cyclones’ season in Lexington, Ky.

The No. 7 seed Flyers and No. 10 seed Cyclones played each other close for the majority of the first half as an Emily Durr jumper tied the game up 31-31 with just over four minutes left in the first half.

Dayton went on a little run during the final four minutes of the half and pushed out to a 42-34 lead.

Iowa State shot 45.2 percent from the field, but the Flyers shot a staggering 57.0 percent from the field in the second half.

Brynn Williamson scored on a layup with 15 minutes left in the game and cut the deficit to eight. The Flyers responded by pushing their lead back to double digits.

The Cyclones made a number of runs and were able to cut it to single digits multiple times, but the Flyers answered every time.

A 3 from Nicole “Kidd” Blaskowsky cut the deficit to just seven points with 2:32 left on the clock, but that was as close as the Cyclones would get.

Moody led the Cyclones as she has done often this season with 17 points and five assists. Sophomore Seanna Johnson pitched in 12 points and six rebounds. Williamson and Blaskowsky each scored 11.

The Cyclones will lose three seniors from this year’s team. Moody and Williamson were impact players all four years for the Cyclones and Fallon Ellis came on especially strong down the stretch of her senior season to have a major impact on the team.