Cyclones Take No. 5 Seed to Big 12 Tourney

03.02.2007 | Women's Basketball

By: Iowa State University

AMES, Iowa - The Iowa State women's basketball team tied for fourth place with Nebraska in the final Big 12 standings after putting together a solid 10-6 league record ... the Cyclones will take the fifth-seed into the Phillips 66 Big 12 Tournament, where they will face 12th-seeded Kansas State at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City, Okla. ... ISU has won its last five straight, six out of the last seven, and the last two straight on the road, most recently winning at Texas Tech, 72-68, on Thursday ... senior Megan Ronhovde became the 18th player in ISU history to record 1,000 career points, eclipsing the mark at Baylor ... ISU head coach Bill Fennelly earned his 250th victory at the helm of the Cyclone program with the win over Missouri on Feb. 4 and his 400th career win in the season opener vs. Cal State Fullerton ... the Cyclones wrapped up the regular season at 22-7 overall and 10-6 in the Big 12, giving the Cyclones their eighth 20-win season in school history and the seventh under Fennelly ... Iowa State has now reached 22 wins in seven seasons in school history, all under Fennelly ... ISU finished the home season with a 15-1 record at Hilton, while ISU was 5-6 in true road games ... the Cyclones wrapped up the non-conference slate at 12-1 overall ... Iowa State defeated Kansas State, 64-61, in its next to last game on Saturday, Feb. 24 ... the Wildcats are 16-13 on the season and finished the Big 12 slate at 4-12 ... KSU has lost its last five straight and 11 out of its last 13 ... ISU senior All-America candidate Lyndsey Medders missed games at Nebraska and Baylor and played limited minutes against Missouri due to a minor concussion ... in the Cyclones' win over Loyola Marymount, Medders broke the Iowa State career assist record and now has 681 ... Medders is ISU's leading scorers with 12.4 points per game ... Nicky Wieben is ISU's second leading scorer with 12 ppg and has 1.8 blocks per game ... Toccara Ross continues to lead the Cyclones on the glass with 7.8 rpg.

On the Tube

The four first-round games of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Tournament on Tuesday, March 6, including ISU's game vs. Kansas State, will be televised statewide on Mediacom Connections Channel (cable channel 22 in Ames), check your local listings ... Kevin Eschenfelder (play-by-play) and Debbie Antonelli (color) will be calling the action ... the final three days of the tournament will all be carried live nationally on Fox Sports Net.

On the Air

The game will be broadcast live on the Cyclone Radio Network (1430 AM in Ames) ... every game is broadcast live on the internet at Cyclones.com ... broadcasts will be streamed by Yahoo! Sports and will cost $4.95 per month, which will include broadcasts of football, men's basketball and the Coaches shows.

Last Time Out

Texas Tech made run after run at Iowa State, but the Cyclones held on to knock off the Lady Raiders, 72-68, at the United Spirit Arena Thursday night in the Big 12 regular-season finale ... the win was the fifth straight for the Cyclones and was the first win in school history at Texas Tech ... seniors Megan Ronhovde and Lyndsey Medders led the Cyclones for the third consecutive game ... Ronhovde was on fire, going 7-of-11 from the field and posting 18 points to lead ISU ... Medders had 16 points, including matching Ronhovde with four treys each ... Toccara Ross led the Cyclones on the boards with 12 rebounds to go with nine points ... three other ISU players finished with eight points on the night ... Iowa State shot 42.1 percent on the night and was 11 of-29 from three-point range for the game ... the Cyclones were outrebounded 46-37, but won for just the third time this season when losing the battle of the boards ... three Lady Raiders finished in double digits, led by LaVonda Henderson's 19 points ... Alesha Robertson finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds for Texas Tech ... after taking a slim 37-35 lead to the locker room at halftime, Ronhovde came out fired up to start the second half, posting eight points and hitting a pair of treys to open the lead to 45-39 just two and a half minutes in ... Ross hit a layup to give the Cyclones a 49-40 advantage, but every time ISU extended its lead, Tech answered with a run of its own, cutting it to one, 49-48 ... Iowa State once again opened a six-point margin, 54-48, but the Lady Raiders again closed it to two, 54-52 ... the Cyclones struggled to push their lead beyond six points, as Texas Tech went on a 7-0 run to tie the game at 66-all with 2:26 remaining ... Wieben hit a layup and Ross knocked down a pair of free throws to take a 70-66 lead, but Wieben was called for her fifth foul on the defensive end and Erin Myrick hit a pair to make it a two-point game, 70-68 ... the Cyclones missed a shot with 22 seconds left, but got the defensive stop ... Ross was fouled with 3.5 seconds left and knocked down a pair of free throws to give them the final margin, 72-68.

About the Cyclones

Iowa State has used six different starting lineups this season ... ISU is 22-7 on the year and finished 10-6 in the Big 12 ... ISU was 15-1 at Hilton Coliseum this year ... ISU is outscoring opponents by a margin of +8.2, and is averaging 68.4 ppg ... the Cyclones are shooting 42.3 percent from the field and 33.7 percent from three-point range ... ISU has outrebounded opponents with a +4 margin ... Iowa State is in its 34th season of women's basketball and holds a 492-470 overall record ... the 2006-07 Iowa State roster has 14 active players on it, the largest number on an ISU roster to start the season since 2001-02 when the Cyclones had 15 players ... the Cyclones are coming off an 18-13 season in which they made it to the second round of the WNIT for their ninth postseason appearance in the last 10 years.

About the Wildcats

Kansas State has gone 2-10 since opening the conference with a 2-1 record with wins over Texas A&M and Missouri ... the Wildcats have lost their last five straight, most recently falling to Oklahoma State 64-55 on Wednesday night ... Kansas State went 12-1 in the non-conference slate ... four Wildcats are averaging double figures, led by Kimberly Dietz with 13.1 points and Claire Coggins with 13 points per game ... Marlies Gipson, KSU's leading rebounder with 8.3 rpg, has been out since Jan. 13 due to injury ... Kansas State is averaging 65.2 points per game, while holding opponents to a 60 ppg average ... however, the Wildcats averaged just 60.4 ppg during conference games, while allowing 65.8 points by league opponents ... KSU is shooting 41.0 percent from the floor for the season and 32.1 percent from long range ... the Wildcats average 6.2 threes per game and are being outrebounded with a -1.2 margin ... Kansas State won the WNIT last season ... head coach Deb Patterson is 215-126 in her 11 seasons at Kansas State.

The Series

Kansas State holds a 41-23 advantage in the all-time series with Iowa State ... the Cyclones have never defeated the Wildcats (0-5) in a conference tournament ... the Cyclones have not faced KSU in a league tournament, since falling 77-65 in 1991 ... Iowa State has won the last three consecutive meetings with KSU and four of the last six meetings ... ISU swept the season series with Kansas State with a 64-61win in Manhattan on Feb. 24 ... the teams split games last season, with Kansas State winning in Ames and Iowa State taking the victory in Manhattan ... the Cyclones earned a 71-66 win in the meeting in Manhattan last season.

Season Reset

Iowa State's 72-68 win at Texas Tech was the first in school history for the Cyclones in Lubbock ... ISU has reached 22 wins for just the seventh time in school history, all under the direction of head coach Bill Fennelly ... ISU has now won five straight and six out of its last seven, including its last two on the road ... the Cyclones carry a 26 RPI as of March 2, and have a 3-4 record against teams in the current RPI top 50 according to collegerpi.com, and a 9-5 mark against teams in the top 80 ... with a 61-54 win over then-13th ranked Texas A&M, Iowa State improved to 3-3 on the season against ranked teams, 39-104 all-time and 33-45 against top 25 squads under Fennelly.

ISU in the Big 12 Tourney

Iowa State finished one Big 12 Northern Division win shy of Nebraska, giving the Huskers the tiebreaker for the fourth seed in the Big 12 Tournament ... ISU is 11-5 in Big 12 Tournament games since 2000 and won back-to-back titles in 2000 and 2001 ... only one time over the last six years has ISU failed to move past its first round game in the tournament, and the Cyclones are 1-1 as the No. 5 seed since the formation of the Big 12 Conference.

Senior Showtime

Not only have ISU seniors Megan Ronhovde and Lyndsey Medders had three of their best games as Cyclones over the final three games of the regular season, they have gone 3-0 on Senior Nights, including their own against Nebraska, and wins at Kansas State and Texas Tech where they were celebrating senior day on the Cyclones' arrival ... Ronhovde has played the best basketball of her career over the last three games of the regular season and none has been bigger than her contribution to the Cyclone win at Texas Tech ... Ronhovde led Iowa State with 18 points, including going 7-of-11 from the field and 4-of-6 from three-point range, to go with two rebounds and an assist ... she scored 10 points over the first six minutes of the game to ignite a 15-6 ISU lead ... then in the second half she came out searing again, posting a quick eight points, including a pair of treys, over the first two and a half minutes to expand ISU's lead back to six, 45-39. ... over the past three games, Ronhovde has led the Cyclones in scoring with 15 points per game on 43.6 percent shooting from the field and 45.8 percent from beyond the arc (11-24) ... she has also averaged five rebounds and one assist over the three-game span ... Medders has also averaged 15 points per game over her last three contests to go with 4.3 rebounds and 7.7 assists per game ... she has shot 90 percent from the charity stripe and grabbed five steals in the three games combined.

ISU Tidbits

Sophomore Nicky Wieben has scored in double figures in 19 games and has led ISU in scoring in 11 games this season ... Wieben has two double-doubles on the year, while junior Toccara Ross has logged four double-doubles ... Ross has been in double figures in 17 games this years and has led the Cyclones on the glass in 14 contests ... ISU has won three out of its last five contests despite being outrebounded by the opponent, the only three contests this season the Cyclones have been able to overcome a deficit on the boards ... Iowa State is 12-2 this season when holding opponents under 60 points, while the Cyclones are 22-2 when scoring 60 points or better.

Academic Accolade

ISU senior Lyndsey Medders was named to the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District VII Second Team ... it is the second consecutive year that Medders has won the honor ... she has posted a 3.44 cumulative grade-point average in sport management ... she is currently involved in an internship with Iowa State Athletics Director Jamie Pollard ... she and fellow seniors Megan Ronhovde and Abby Reinert, as well as sophomore Amanda Nisleit, were all named to the Academic All-Big 12 First Team, which was released last week.

Bolte Earns Spot at WBCA All-Star Game

Kelsey Bolte, who has signed a national letter of intent to play for the Iowa State women's basketball team in 2007, has been named one of the Top 20 high school seniors selected for the 2007 WBCA's High School All-America Game presented by Nike ... the Women's Basketball Coaches Association selected 20 players from across the country to participate in the 16th annual event ... the event is part of the WBCA National Convention, which takes place at the NCAA Women's Final Four ... Bolte was among a list of student-athletes chosen who have signed with Tennessee, Duke, North Carolina, Ohio State, Connecticut, Maryland, Rutgers, and others.

Trey Bien

Iowa State has made at least one three-pointer in 363 consecutive regular-season games dating back to 1995 ... that streak now ranks second in the nation, as Cleveland State failed to hit a long-range try in their game on Feb. 3, ending its streak at an NCAA record 408 consecutive games and Stanford ended its streak at 403 on Feb. 22 ... Canisius College now unofficially holds the longest current streak at 389 consecutive games ... the ISU school record for three-pointers made in a game is 18 (vs. Missouri, Feb. 19, 2000), which ISU challenged in their game against Virginia Tech, hitting 14-of-27 on the contest.

Streaking

Lyndsey Medders has passed out an assist in every game she has played at Iowa State ... that is a span of 116 consecutive games through four years ... her single-game high was a school-record 16 assists vs. IPFW last season ... she ranks now holds the single-season class records for freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors ... she now has 178 this season, rewriting Stacy Frese's senior mark of 165 ... she has only had one game with fewer than three assists this season.

Block Party

Sophomore Nicky Wieben has posted 53 blocked shots on the season and 112 for her career, ranking her second all-time in ISU history ... she needs 43 to tie for first place ... this season Wieben has had three games with five blocks and seven games with three or more.

Record Setting

Lyndsey Medders broke the ISU career assist record against Loyola Marymount, passing Lindsey Wilson's previous record of 589 ... Medders currently has 681 dimes and is fourth all-time in Big 12 history ... she need 43 assists to move into third place on the Big 12 list ... Medders also ranks eighth in school history with 1,362 points on the ISU career scoring chart, moving into eighth place against Texas Tech ... Megan Ronhovde is the 18th player in ISU history to join the 1,000-point club, as she now has 1,065 career points ... she has made her way onto the ISU career rebounding charts, ranking seventh with 667, and ranks third in three-point field goal makes with 234.

Big 12 Honors

Nicky Wieben was the most recent Cyclone to win Phillips 66 Big 12 Women's Basketball Player of the Week honors which is chosen by a media voting panel for games from Feb. 12-18 ... Wieben averaged 19 points, 5.5 rebounds and two blocks for that week ... she hit 14-of-18 shots from the floor (.788) and went 9-of-10 from the charity stripe ... freshman Alison Lacey earned Big 12 weekly honors when she was named the Phillips 66 Big 12 Women's basketball Rookie of the Week for games Jan. 22-28 ... Toccara Ross was named the Big 12 Rookie of the Week, while senior Lyndsey Medders was named Big 12 Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 15-21 ... ISU freshman, Rachel Pierson, also won the Big 12's Rookie of the Week honor for the week of Dec. 3-10.

Against the Top 25

ISU's 67-56 win over No. 22 Texas was the Cyclones' first win over a ranked team since a 73-69 win over No. 13 Texas on Feb. 5, 2005 ... with the 61-54 win over No. 13 Texas A&M, and the 64-53 win over No. 25 Nebraska, Iowa State is now 3-3 on the season against ranked teams, 39-104 all-time and 33-45 against ranked teams under Bill Fennelly ... Iowa State has faced five teams ranked in the top 25 this season, including Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska (twice), Baylor and Texas A&M.

Easy Street

The Cyclones have shot 74.1 percent from the charity stripe this season, to rank second in the Big 12 ... head coach Bill Fennelly has made it a goal for ISU to make more free throws than the opponents attempt, and so far the Cyclones have been successful ... ISU has hit 398 free throws, while opponents have attempted just 354 on the season ... against Kansas on Jan. 3, Iowa State hit 33, while the Jayhawks attempted just five on the night ... and against Texas A&M ISU hit 21 free throws, while the Aggies attempted just six.

Cyclones Making Way Through Schedule

Iowa State is 22-7 on the season, including a 10-game winning streak earlier in the season ... ISU has faced nine NCAA Tournament teams from a season ago and 15 of the 23 teams on ISU's schedule to this point were in the postseason last year ... the Cyclones have gone 7-4 against 2006 NCAA Tourney teams.

Fast Start

ISU's 13-1 start to the season is the best for the Cyclones since going 15-1 during the 2004-05 campaign ... Iowa State wrapped up its regular-season non-conference slate with one loss or less for the fifth time in school history, with all five coming under head coach Bill Fennelly, and started 13-1 on the season for the fifth time in the last 12 seasons.

State Champs

Iowa State claimed the mythical state championship for the second consecutive season ... the Cyclones defeated UNI, 80-74, in overtime in Cedar Falls on Nov. 20 ... then knocked off Iowa in the Hy-Vee Cy-Hawk Series in Iowa City on Nov. 30, 80-74 ... and ISU defeated Drake, 70-62, at Hilton Coliseum on Dec. 5.

Leaders of the Pack

In NCAA statistics released for games through Feb. 25, the Cyclones ranked highly in a number of categories ... the Cyclones' 7.1 three-pointers per game ranked 13th nationally, while their 15.5 assists per game ranks 48th ... ISU's personal fouls per game ranked 23rd and their 74.5 free throw percentage ranked 31st ... committing just 15.4 turnovers per game, Iowa State ranked 42nd ... the Cyclones' 37.3 field goal percentage defense was 48th and their +4.5 rebound margin was 49th ... their +8.4 scoring margin was 57th ... individually, Lyndsey Medders ranked sixth with 6.5 assists per game ... Nicky Wieben's 1.9 blocks per game ranked 47th.

Big 12 Rankings

In games through March 1, the Cyclones lead the Big 12 in three-point field goals per game (7.3) and assist-to-turnover ratio ... they rank second in free throw percentage (.741) and third in assists (15.4) ... ISU is fourth in field-goal percentage defense (.373) and rebounding margin (+4), and fifth in three-point field goal accuracy (.337) ... individually, Lyndsey Medders leads the league in assists (6.6) and is 16th in individual scoring with 12.4 ppg ... teammate Nicky Wieben ranks 17th with 12 ppg and is third (1.8) in blocked shots ... Medders is second in assist-to-turnover ratio ... Medders is fifth, Megan Ronhovde is seventh and Heather Ezell is 11th in three-point field goals made ... Wieben is fifth and Toccara Ross is ninth in free throw percentage ... Ross is seventh in rebounding (7.8).

Major Milestone

ISU head coach Bill Fennelly earned his 400th career victory with the Cyclones' season-opening win vs. Cal State Fullerton ... Fennelly is now 421-170 overall and 255-117 in his 12 seasons with the Cyclones ... his 300th career win came against Baylor on March 7, 2001, in the Big 12 Tournament ... No. 200 also came in the Big 12 Tourney, defeating Texas A&M on March 4, 1997 ... notched his 100th career win while coaching at Toledo, turning back Providence, 74-64, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on March 18, 1992.

Medders' Long List of Honors

All-America candidate Lyndsey Medders has earned numerous preseason accolades, including being named to the All-Big 12 Preseason Team ... most recently she was named a finalist for the eighth annual Nancy Lieberman award for the nation's top point guard ... she was a top 30 finalist for the Senior CLASS Award and a top 50 finalist for the Naismith Trophy presented by Cingular Wireless ... she was named to the Women's John R. Wooden Award Preseason All-America Team and was named one of the nation's top five point guards by ESPN.com ... she earned preseason all-America recognition from SportsPageMagazine.com and Street & Smith's College Basketball Yearbook ... Medders led the Cyclones a year ago with 16.5 points per game, and led the nation in assists with a 7.7 pg average ... she was named to the All-Big 12 First Team last season, and earned third-team all-America honors from Women's Basketball News Service in 2005-06.

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 earned the 400th win of his career in the 2006-07 season opener against Cal State Fullerton ... 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 nearly triple the conference victories (115) in 12 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 55 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.

Where They Stack Up

Iowa State was picked fifth in the Big 12 Preseason Coaches Poll and improved on that, tying with Nebraska for fourth place in the final standings ... ISU recieved 26 points in the Associated Press Poll last week which would be good for 28th place in the standings ... ISU received 13 votes in last week's Coaches' Poll, which would also be good for 28th place ... ISU was picked No. 23 in two preseason publications, including Street & Smith's College Basketball Yearbook and SportsPageMagazine.com.

Home Sweet Hilton Magic

The Cyclones have been phenomenal at home during head coach Bill Fennelly's tenure, compiling a 154-27 record (.850) in Hilton Coliseum, including a 69-3 mark against regular-season non-conference opponents ... Iowa State was a last-second shot away from going undefeated at home this season, finishing with a 15-1 record at Hilton ... the Cyclones finished 15-0 in Hilton Coliseum two years ago, the third Cyclone squad to go undefeated at home (all three have come under Fennelly) ... ISU finished the 2005-06 season ranked seventh in attendance, marking the eighth consecutive season the Cyclones have ranked 11th or higher.

Two For 2007-08

Iowa natives Kelsey Bolte (Ida Grove) and Jocelyn Anderson (Gowrie) made it official Nov. 7 when they signed National Letters of Intent to join the Iowa State women's basketball team for the 2007-08 season ... Bolte, a 6-1 senior guard at Battle Creek-Ida Grove, was the 2006 2A Iowa state Player of the Year, and earned a place on the 2006 Iowa state all-tournament team while leading the Falcons to a 27-2 overall record and a place in the state championship game ... Bolte averaged 22 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and five steals as a junior ... Anderson will join the Cyclones after two seasons at Des Moines Area Community College, where she is a sophomore this season ... the 6-4 center was chosen as a junior college preseason first-team All-American before the 2006-07 season began ... Anderson averaged 15.5 points, 11.2 rebounds and 5.3 blocked shots per game and shot 58.7 percent from the field as a freshman at DMACC.