Cyclones Cruise to 85-48 Win Over UWM

Saturday, December 2

Ames, Iowa

2:00 PM

Iowa State

5-1

UW-Milwaukee

3-6

Team	1	2	F
UWM	24	24	48
Iowa State	39	46	85

Cyclones Cruise to 85-48 Win Over UWM

12.02.2006 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Iowa State University

AMES, Iowa ? Playing in Hilton Coliseum for the first time in five games, the Iowa State women's basketball team cruised to an 85-48 win over Wisconsin-Milwaukee Saturday afternoon. With the win, Iowa State improved to 5-1 on the season, while UWM dropped to 3-6 on the year.

The Panthers were able to cut the lead to 13 points, 45-32, three minutes into the second half, but the Cyclones put together a 10-0 run from there and never looked back, taking their largest lead at 37 points on two occasions.

The Cyclone post players had their best game of the season, with all three regulars finishing in double-digit scoring on the afternoon. Sophomore Nicky Wieben led Iowa State with 19 points and had six rebounds, to go with two blocked shots. Redshirt freshman Rachel Pierson turned in12 points and five rebounds in just 12 minutes, due to foul trouble, and junior transfer Toccara Ross posted her fifth straight contest in double digits with 10 point and five boards. All 13 eligible ISU players saw time in the contest, with all but two seeing double-digit minutes.

“It was great to see so many kids get double digit minutes,” head coach Bill Fennelly said. “That was fun. We have a lot of kids that work really hard every day in practice. I really thought our post players came to play tonight. That was good. We had 79 minutes, two turnovers and 49 points out of the posts, which is something we've really needed and haven't done a very good job of. I thought we played well.”

Iowa State shot 46.7 percent from the field and 31.6 percent from three-point range, while holding UWM to 24.6 percent for the contests and 21.4 percent from downtown. The Cyclones outrebounded the Panthers, 46-33, and committed a season-low eight turnovers.

The Cyclones got out to an early 15-7 lead, despite both teams starting ice cold from the field. Iowa State opened the game going 1-of-8 from the field, while UW-Milwaukee was 1-of-10 from the floor and 0-of-6 from three-point range over the first six minutes of the contest.

ISU warmed up as the game went, shooting 41.9 percent for the first 20 minutes, while holding the Panthers to 24.1 percent and 18.8 percent from beyond the arc. Wieben had 11 first-half points, while Pierson had eight, beginning the game a perfect 4-of-4 from the field. The Cyclones went up 33-16 with 3:40 left in the first half on a bucket in the paint by Megan Ronhovde. UWM closed the gap to 15 points, 39-24, on free throws by Emily Markert going into the locker room at the half.

The Cyclones will finish up their instate slate on Tuesday when they play host to the Drake Bulldogs at 7 p.m. at Hilton Coliseum. Iowa State will go for its second straight mythical state title, as the Cyclones have already defeated Northern Iowa and Iowa.