It was not your average game in Hilton Coliseum on Jan. 10, as the unranked Cyclones (11-3, 2-1 Big 12) took on No. 3 Texas (13-1, 2-1 Big 12). 

Usually a top-five women’s basketball program does not get knocked off by an unranked opponent. Usually a team does not come back to win from an 18-point deficit. And typically, if a team scores two points over the final eight minutes of a game, they don’t win. 

Despite all of that, the Cyclones were still able to pull off the upset victory against No. 3 Texas. It’s even more impressive considering the fact that the team was without starting point guard Jadda Buckley, who sat out with a lingering injury.

“It’s hard to say something better than ‘special’ or [to] top ‘special,’ and I don’t know what that is but I think it happened today,” said ISU coach Bill Fennelly after the game.

The Cyclones got off to a sluggish start that saw the Longhorns build an 18-point lead in the first half. The Cyclones were able to cut the lead to 13 by halftime on a last-second three from Brynn Williamson.

Whatever Fennelly said at halftime worked. The Cyclones came out firing on all cylinders after shooting just 25.9 percent in the first half. The Cyclones started the half on a 7-0 run and never looked back. 

By the eight-minute mark, the Cyclones had come all the way back and even pushed the game to a seven-point ISU lead. Then, the offensive struggles returned. 

The Cyclones would only score one basket over the final eight minutes, but it was a big one. After Texas fought back to tie the game at 57, Nikki Moody drove to the left side of the lane before dishing to Seanna Johnson for the eventual game-winning layup. 

Texas would have a bevy of last-second looks to take the lead or tie the game in the final seconds, but could not find the bottom of the bucket on any of their attempts. 

“It felt like the longest three seconds of my life,” Moody said, after finishing the game with 17 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. “We were fighting for the ball, it kept getting tipped around and I was just praying they missed.”

So, how did the Cyclones manage to steal a victory despite everything being stacked against them?

“Im not smart enough to put this into words,” Fennelly said. “I think the magic of this program came out today.”

It was a tale of two halves for the Cyclones. After shooting only 25.9 percent in the first half, the Cyclones were able to shoot 51.9 percent in the second half.

Shots started falling for the Cyclones and the Texas offense went ice cold. The Longhorns shot a measly 21.1 percent in the second half.

The combination of the Cyclones heating up and Texas cooling down led to the fans at Hilton Coliseum getting back into the game, which Fennelly and Brynn Williamson, who finished with 14 points, said played a big factor.

“The credit goes to our fans,” Williamson said. “You’ll never understand how loud it got on that court.”

It was a special day beyond just the win. The upset came on a day when a number of former ISU women’s basketball players were in attendance to honor Fennelly’s 20th year at Iowa State.

“It’s one of those, if you wrote this out the way it happened and took it to Hollywood, they’d laugh at you,” Fennelly said.