Cyclone Women's Basketball Season in Review

Cyclone Women's Basketball Season in Review

03.26.2006 | Women's Basketball

By: Iowa State University

March 27, 2006

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Iowa State Cyclone Basketball
2005-06 Season in Review
(18-13 Overall, 7-9 Big 12 Conference)

Quickly
Iowa State played two rounds of the 2006 Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT), with both games going into overtime at Hilton Coliseum ... ISU topped UW-Green Bay 79-71 March 16 and fell to Marquette 69-63 March 20 ... it was Iowa State's ninth postseason appearance in the last 10 years ... this was the Cyclones' second appearance in the WNIT after advancing to the Final Four in 2004 ... ISU head coach Bill Fennelly made his fifth trip to the WNIT after guiding three Toledo teams to the postseason event ... in all, Fennelly owns 15 postseason appearances in his 18 years as a head coach ... Iowa State is 13-9 all-time in NCAA/WNIT postseason action and 12-4 in postseason contests played in Hilton Coliseum ... Iowa State recorded its 15th winning season in school history, while head coach Bill Fennelly posted his 17th winning campaign in 18 years ... 13 of Iowa State's 22 opponents earned postseason bids ... eight foes were in the NCAA Tournament (Baylor, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, N.C. State, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, UC Riverside) and five received WNIT bids (Drake, Kansas, Kansas State, Nebraska, Northern Iowa) ... ISU was one of eight Big 12 Conference teams competing in the postseason. Stat Facts
ISU junior Lyndsey Medders was the 17th player in ISU history to join the 1,000-point club ... she set the ISU single-season record, dishing 215 ... Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly is one win shy of 400 career victories ... freshman Nicky Wieben set the single-season blocked shots record (59) and already ranks ninth all-time at ISU ... Medders set seven of the top 15 single-game assist records and owns nine of the top 23 performances overall ... freshman Heather Ezell tied for sixth on that single-game assist mark with 13 vs. Missouri ... junior Megan Ronhovde played every minute in ISU's two Big 12 Conference Championship games and logged seven complete games for the season ... Iowa State used a six-player rotation in four games and a seven-player roster in six contests ... 40.5 percent of ISU's shots were 3-pointers ... Iowa State rallied back from a halftime deficit in five of its wins ... ISU lost just one game in which it scored at least 70 points (11-1) ... the Cyclones picked up their first win when scoring fewer than 60 points (1-6) in the regular-season finale victory over Colorado ... Iowa State made more free throws (383) than its opponents attempted (307).

Where There is a Wilkins, There is a Way
Fifth-year senior Brittany Wilkins recorded one of the best senior campaigns in Cyclone history ... the 6-3 forward/center emerged from the shadows of a three-year stint spent mostly on the bench to become ISU's most consistent contributor ... after getting sporadic starting nods in her first three seasons and averaging just 13.7 minutes in the games she took the floor, Wilkins averaged nearly a double-double (16.1 ppg, 8.9 rpg) in her 30.9 mpg of play ... she became just the seventh Cyclone to earn conference all-tournament honors after posting 23.5 ppg and 8.0 rpg in ISU's two games, facing first-team all-league centers in both contests ... an honorable mention all-Big 12 pick by the coaches, Wilkins also earned all-tournament honors at both of ISU's regular-season tournaments, as well as first-team academic all-conference accolades.

Medders Matters
Junior point guard Lyndsey Medders ranked first nationally with 7.7 assists per game ... the first-team all-conference performer logged seven games with double-digit assists, including 12 vs. Oklahoma in the second round of the Big 12 Conference Championship ... she had a school-record 16 dimes vs. IPFW in the championship game of the Cyclone Classic to earn tournament MVP honors ... Medders was ISU's top scorer in 11 games, scoring 20+ points in nine contests ... she was voted Big 12 Player of the Week Dec. 5 after scoring a career-best 32 points against Drake ... Medders was a first-eam all-Big 12 Conference selection by the league's coaches ... the Los Angeles native also earned third-team All-America recognition from Women's Basketball News Service.

Fantastic Frosh
Freshmen Heather Ezell and Nicky Wieben made an immediate impact in the Cyclone lineup ... Ezell, who was ISU's third-leading scorer (10.0 ppg), played point guard during Lyndsey Medders' absence ... the Springfield, Mo., native dished a career-best 13 assists in the win over Missouri, which was an ISU freshman record and tied for sixth on the all-time ISU single-game list ... she had a breakout game against Akron, pouring in a career-best 27 points ... she was one 3-pointer shy of the Hilton Coliseum record with seven treys, including 6-of-6 shooting in the first half ... Ezell, who started all but one game, averaged 35.5 minutes played per game and logged three complete games ... Wieben had a career game against instate foe Iowa, posting her first collegiate double-double with 19 points and 12 rebounds ... seven of her boards were offensive ... she broke out of a scoring slump with a 18 points in the win over Missouri, adding three blocks and nine rebounds off the bench ... Wieben set the ISU freshman single-season blocks record with two against Nebraska Jan. 14 and topped the overall single-season list (59) with seven swats against UW-Green Bay in the WNIT first round.

Trey Bien
Iowa State has made at least one 3-pointer in 335 consecutive games dating back to 1995 ... that streak ranks third nationally behind Cleveland State and Drake ... the school record for 3-pointers made in a game is 18 (vs. Missouri, Feb. 19, 2000).

Home Sweet Hilton Magic
The Cyclones have been phenomenal at home during head coach Bill Fennelly's tenure, compiling a 139-26 record (.842) in Hilton Coliseum, including a 60-3 mark against regular-season nonconference opponents ... Iowa State finished 15-0 in Hilton Coliseum last year, the third Cyclone squad to go undefeated at home ... ISU ranked among the top six schools nationally in attendance all season.

Head Coach Bill Fennelly
Head coach Bill Fennelly took over a program that had only five winning seasons in its first 22 years and has guided ISU to nine postseason appearances in the last 10 years ... he has led the Cyclones to seven NCAA Tournament appearances, including a 1999 Elite Eight berth and Sweet Sixteen games in 2000 and 2001 ... Fennelly's Cyclones captured the only league championships in program history, winning back-to-back Big 12 Conference Tournament championships in 2000 and 2001 and earning a share of the regular-season crown in 2000 ... Iowa State spent more than four years in The Associated Press national poll, including 34 weeks in the top 10 ... he has posted more than double the conference victories (105) in 11 seasons at ISU than all of the previous 15 seasons combined (43) ... his teams have drawn record-setting crowds, ranking among the top 11 schools nationally in attendance the last eight seasons ... Fennelly's leadership produced ISU's first-ever All-Americans in Stacy Frese (1999, 2000), Angie Welle (2000, 2001, 2002) and Anne O'Neil (2005) ... Welle was voted to the Big 12 Conference 10th Anniversary Team, an elite group of five players ... his Cyclones have earned all-conference recognition 26 times and academic all-league honors 51 times ... six of his players have been selected in the WNBA professional basketball draft over the last five years ... Fennelly, who guided Toledo to a 166-53 record and six postseason tournament berths in his seven years at UT, was inducted in the Toledo Varsity "T" Hall of Fame in 2003.

Smarty Pants
Iowa State's Lyndsey Medders was voted to the 2006 ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA District VII Women's Basketball Academic All-America second team ... it was the 14th time an Iowa State women's basketball player has earned district academic All-America recognition and the 11th honor during head coach Bill Fennelly's tenure ... the 5-9 junior guard from Los Angeles posted a 3.43 grade point average in sport management.

Five Cyclones Earn Academic All-Big 12 Honors
Iowa State had five women's basketball players named to the 2006 Big 12 Conference women's basketball academic all-conference team, including four first-team selections ... Cyclone women's basketball student-athletes have earned all-conference recognition 80 times since 1985, including 58 selections during head coach Bill Fennelly's 10-year tenure ... Brittany Wilkins was a four-time honoree, while Lyndsey Medders and Megan Ronhovde were two-time first-team selections ... Kandice Beenken and sophomore Lisa Bildeaux were first-time picks.