Cyclones Hit Road for Tilt with No. 23 Colorado

01.11.2008 | Women's Basketball

By: cyclones.com

Jan. 13, 2008 ? 3 p.m. (CST)

Boulder, Colo. ? Coors Event Center (11,064)

Radio: Cyclone Radio Network/Learfield

Talent: Rich Fellingham (pxp); Brent Blum (color)

Television: FSN

Talent: Mark Neely (pxp); Brenda VanLengen (color)

Cyclone Notebook
-Iowa State travels to Boulder, Colo., to face the 23rd ranked Colorado Buffaloes at 3 p.m. (CST) Sunday. The Cyclones will try to earn their first Big 12 Conference win of the season and will try to even their road record to 2-2. The game will be telecast live on Fox Sports Net. Mark Neely will call the action, while Brenda VanLengen provides analysis.

-Iowa State will play its first back-to-back road series of the season this week when it goes to No. 23 Colorado on Sunday and then travels to 15th-ranked Texas on Wednesday. It marks the first time since 2003-04 the Cyclones will face three straight ranked opponents. The game against the Longhorns will be televised on Fox Sports Southwest.

-ISU's lone senior, Toccara Ross, will miss the remainder of the 2007-08 season due to a torn ACL suffered in the game at Minnesota.

-With a 76-50 win over Montana State, the Cyclones collected their 500th win in program history. They are now 507-475 overall.

-Colorado owns a 36-22 advantage in the series with Iowa State, including an 18-7 advantage in Boulder. The Cyclones have had recent success against the Buffs, however, as ISU has claimed six out of the last seven meetings.

-The loss to Oklahoma on Wednesday snapped a 15-game home winning streak for the Cyclones, dating back to last season. The Cyclones have won 17 straight at home against non-conference opponents.

-Colorado has proven all the naysayers wrong, bolting out to a 12-2 start and a 1-0 league start. The Buffaloes are ranked 23rd in the Associated Press Poll after being picked to finish 11th in the Big 12 preseason coaches' poll. CU has strung together 11 straight wins since falling in back-to-back games at USC and at home vs. Siena.

-Subscribers to the Clone Zone will have access to eight more live game web casts of the women's basketball team. To subscribe to the Clone Zone, go to Cyclones.com.

-Iowa State returned 10 letterwinners from its 2006-07 NCAA Tournament team. Last year's squad went 26-9 overall and 10-6 to finish tied for fourth in the Big 12 Conference. Iowa State lost four players from last season, including a pair of four-year starters in Lyndsey Medders and Megan Ronhovde.

-The Cyclones have added three newcomers to their roster, but only one is a freshman. Kelsey Bolte is Iowa State's only true freshman from Ida Grove, Iowa. Denae Stuckey is a sophomore transfer from Butler Community College and junior Jocelyn Anderson came to ISU from Des Moines Area Community College.

-Iowa State is coming off one of its best seasons in school history, recording a 26-9 overall record, one win shy of the school record. The Cyclones made the postseason for the 10th time in the last 11 seasons, making it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Cyclones won nine of their final 11 games of the season and won three games in as many days to make it to the title game of the Big 12 Championship against Oklahoma in Oklahoma City.

-Head coach Bill Fennelly is 270-122 at Iowa State and in his 13th season with the Cyclones. He is 436-175 in his head coaching career, which began at Toledo in 1988.

A Closer Look At Colorado
-Colorado enters the game against Iowa State as one of the hottest teams in the country, winning its last 11 games for a 12-2 season record and a No. 23 AP ranking. CU is 1-0 in the Big 12 after winning at Missouri, 70-58, Wednesday night.

-Colorado is led for the fourth straight season by senior Jackie McFarland. The Derby, Kan., native is averaging 17.3 points and 7.9 rebounds per game this season. Freshman Brittany Spears is CU's second-leading scorer with 14.2 ppg.

-The Buffaloes are averaging 69.9 points per game this season, while holding opponents to 53.9 ppg. Colorado is outrebounding opponents by a +7.9 margin, and have passed out 16 assists per contest, while committing 18.7 turnovers a game.

-Colorado head coach Kathy McConnell-Miller is in her third season overseeing the Buff program. She is 34-40 at CU and 125-128 in her head coaching career. Before taking over the Colorado program, McConnell-Miller was head coach at Tulsa for six seasons, and has been an assistant at Illinois, Rutgers and Pittsburgh.

-The Buffs entered the week ranking fourth in the NCAA in three-pointers per game. Eleven CU players have hit at least one trey this season, but the bulk of three-pointers have come from Bianca Smith (36), Brittany Spears (25) and Susie Powers (15). As a team, Colorado is shooting 34 percent from long range.

Quick Hits
-The Cyclones have swept the state of Iowa for the last three seasons, winning all three games against instate Division I opponents. ISU knocked of Iowa, 58-44, Drake, 58-51, and Northern Iowa, 69-41, for its third straight mythical state title this season.

-The Cyclones averaged 10.7 three-pointers per game during their three-day tournament Dec. 28-30. Iowa State is now averaging eight treys per game for the season. A Cyclone player has hit at least five treys in five different contests this season. Alison Lacey has hit three or more treys in six of the last seven games, and has hit five twice.

-Junior Nicky Wieben has been in double digits in 10 of ISU's 13 games this season. Wieben has led the Cyclones in scoring in six contests this season.

-Nicky Wieben and Jocelyn Anderson have combined for 57 of ISU's 76 blocked shots on the season. Wieben is averaging 2.3 blocks per game after swatting seven in the first half against Hampton. She ranks fifth in the league and entered the week tied for 25th in the nation in blocks per game. She holds the ISU class record for freshmen and sophomores and already is third on the junior list with 32 this season. She needs just three to break the ISU career record and 15 to break the junior class record.

-Sophomore transfer Denae Stuckey has started every game in her initial season at Iowa State.

-Heather Ezell hit 10 three-pointers against Sacramento State and Alison Lacey hit nine treys in the next contest against Michigan. The pair knocked down nine combined three-pointers at Minnesota and 10 combined against Bowling Green.

-Amanda Nisleit is averaging 7.0 ppg, after entering the season averaging 1.6 for her career. She is averaging 4.6 rebounds per contest after coming in posting 1.2 rpg.

-Toccara Ross earned the Cyclones' first double-double of the season against Iowa with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Kelsey Bolte got the second double-double of the season against Creighton with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

-The Cyclones have been outrebounded four times this season, but they hold a +6.3 rebounding margin through 14 games.

-Junior forward Gillian Bjerke has transferred to Concordia University, St. Paul, a Division II school. Bjerke did not play for the Cyclones this season, but had played in 26 games in her career prior to this season.

Build It and They Will Come
In the national attendance rankings which were last put out on Monday, Jan. 7, by the University of Wisconsin, the Cyclones ranked fifth nationally in fans per game with 8,599.

Last Time Out
Iowa State came close to knocking off sixth-ranked Oklahoma Wednesday night at Hilton Coliseum, but couldn't get a last-second shot to fall to force overtime. The Cyclones fell, 67-64, despite taking a 61-60 advantage with just under a minute to play. The Cyclones went on an 11-0 run to come back from a 60-50 deficit to take the late lead, but poor free throw shooting did them in as Oklahoma knocked down the shots that counted and ISU could not. Freshman Kelsey Bolte had the biggest game of her young career, scoring a career-high 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting. She was 8-of-9 before missing her final three shots of the game. Iowa State shot 48.4 percent in the second half after posting their worst shooting percentage in a half this season (.280) over the first 20 minutes.

Facing a Teammate
Iowa State guard Heather Ezell and Colorado forward Jackie McFarland will face each other for the first time since playing together this summer on the U.S. Jones Cup Team in Taipei, Taiwan. Ezell averaged 8.7 points per game, while McFarland turned in 9.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per game in the tournament.

Reaching Milestones
Junior Nicky Wieben is 143 points shy of becoming the 19th player in Iowa State history to join the 1,000-point club. Wieben currently has 857 career points for the Cyclones. Heather Ezell is nearing the 750 mark, with 705 career points, and Alison Lacey is coming up on 500, as she now sits with 462 career points.

It's Not the Size of the Dog in the Fight
Sophomore guard Denae Stuckey is Iowa State's smallest player on the roster, measuring 5 feet, 8 inches tall, but she is the Cyclones' second-leading rebounder. Stuckey is averaging 5.0 boards per game, and she isn't just doing it on one end of the court. Stuckey has 26 offensive rebounds and 44 off the defensive glass this season.

Lacey Lighting it Up
Sophomore point guard Alison Lacey has been a key cog in making the ISU offense run this season, passing out 4.5 assists per game, while committing just 2.1 turnovers per contest. The Canberra, Australia, native is also ISU's leading scorer with 13.6 points per game. She has been in double figures for the last seven games straight and has hit three or more treys in seven contests this year. She has knocked down a three-pointer in the last 13 games, and hit three or more in six consecutive games before snapping that streak against Oklahoma.

70 Is the Magic Number
ISU is 64-4 (.941) in the last five seasons when scoring 70+ points in a game. The Cyclones currently have a 23-game win streak when reaching the 70-point mark, dating back to a 79-71 OT win over Wisconsin-Green Bay on March 16, 2006.

Getting Defensive
Iowa State has held opponents to 51.9 points per game and has only allowed three opponents to score more than 60 points this season (62 by No. 19 Vanderbilt, 64 by Oklahoma and 69 by Minnesota). ISU's opponents have shot 35.6 percent from the floor and 30 percent from three-point range. ISU has forced opponents into 16 turnovers per game. Iowa State leads the Big 12 in scoring defense.

Nationally Speaking
ISU ranked in the top 26 in 10 NCAA statistical categories, released Jan. 7, including leading the nation in fewest personal fouls. The Cyclones were fifth in scoring defense and sixth in three-point field goals made and fewest turnovers per game. Iowa State is 13th in blocked shots per game and 14th in assist-to-turnover ratio. The Cyclones are also 19th in field-goal percentage defense and three-point field goal percentage. On an individual level, Nicky Wieben is 24th in blocked shots and Jocelyn Anderson is 57th. Alison Lacey ranks in the top 50 in three categories, including ranking ninth in three-point percentage, 19th in three-pointers per game and 43rd in assist-to-turnover ratio.

Big 12 Rankings
As a team, Iowa State ranks in the top six of the conference in eight of 19 statistical categories. The Cyclones lead the conference in scoring defense (51.9). Iowa State is second in the league in three-point field goal percentage (.384), three-pointers per game (8.0), and assist-to-turnover margin. ISU is third in rebounding defense, fourth in blocked shots (5.4) and fifth in turnover margin. Individually, Alison Lacey leads the league in three-point percentage (.463) and is second in three-pointers made with 2.7 per contest. Heather Ezell is sixth in three-pointers made with 2.2 pg. The pair also rank third and seventh, respectively, in assist-to-turnover ratio. Lacey is 15th in scoring (13.6 ppg) and sixth in assists (4.5). Nicky Wieben is 19th in scoring (12.9 ppg) and fifth in blocked shots, while teammate Jocelyn Anderson is seventh in the same category.

Down on the Block
Junior Nicky Wieben finished in double figures against Hampton (16), marking the 44th time in her ISU career she has scored in double digits and the 10th time this season to score 10+ points for the Cyclones. She also has 32 blocks on the season and 153 blocked shots for her career. She needs just three blocks to break the Iowa State career record.

Big 12 Player of the Week
Heather Ezell was named the Big 12 Player of the Week on Monday, Nov. 19, after she tied the Big 12 and Iowa State records for three-pointers in a single game, knocking down 10 in a 99-45 win over Sacramento State. She broke the Hilton Coliseum record, which was previously eight three-pointers, and she tied Stacy Frese (ISU, 1999) and Laurie Koehn (Kansas State, 2003) in the Big 12 record book.

Coaching Consistency
Iowa State has returned the same coaching staff for the last five seasons. Associate head coach Jack Easley is the newest to the staff and is in his fifth campaign with the Cyclones. Latoja Schaben is not new to the staff, but she was married during the offseason, going from Latoja Harris to Latoja Schaben. She played for Coach Fennelly at Toledo, while fellow assistant Jodi Steyer coached for Fennelly at Toledo from 1989 to 1996 and has been at Iowa State for the past five seasons.

The Votes Are In
The Iowa State women's basketball team received 20 votes in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll this week, moving up to rank 28th. The Cyclones have not received a vote in the AP Poll in the last several weeks.

Coming On Board
Iowa State will add the services of three outstanding newcomers in 2008-09, head coach Bill Fennelly announced when Ashley Arlen (Cascade, Iowa), Whitney Williams (Ft. Worth, Texas) and Alexis Yackley (Onida, S.D.) each signed national letters of intent.

Arlen is a 6-1 forward, who averaged 19.2 points, 9.8 rebounds and two blocks per game, while shooting 56 percent from the field for the Cascade Bruins last season.

Williams, a 5-7 guard, plays for the Texas Home Educators Sports Association (THESA) of Fort Worth, which finished 38-12 last year under head coach Alan Burt. She hit 206 three-pointers at a 48.7 percent clip and averaged 24.3 points as a junior.

Yackley, also a 5-7 guard, has been the starting point guard for Sully Buttes High School since the eighth grade, and led the Chargers to the South Dakota State B Basketball state title last season. She was named first-team all-state as a sophomore and junior.

Fennelly's the Dean of the Big 12
With Jody Conradt stepping down as head coach at the University of Texas at the conclusion of last season, Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly became the new dean of Big 12 coaches. Fennelly wrapped up his 12th season at Iowa State, followed closely by Deb Patterson (Kansas State) and Sherri Coale (Oklahoma), who each finished their 11th campaign at a Big 12 institution. Fennelly is second to Coale for the most Big 12 regular-season wins by current league coaches with 110. With the win over ISU, Coale claimed the lead with 111.

Home Sweet Hilton Magic
The Cyclones have been phenomenal at home during head coach Bill Fennelly's tenure, compiling a 163-28 record (.853) in Hilton Coliseum, including a 78-3 (.963) mark against regular-season non-conference opponents. Iowa State was a last-second shot away from going undefeated at home in 2006-07, finishing with a 15-1 record at Hilton. ISU finished the 2006-07 season ranked seventh in attendance, marking the ninth consecutive season the Cyclones have ranked 11th or higher in the nation.

Trey Bien
Iowa State has made at least one three-pointer in 393 consecutive games dating back to 1995. That streak now ranks second in the nation. Canisius College unofficially holds the longest current streak at 405 consecutive games, while Iowa State is second.

NCAA Tournament Host
Iowa State will play host to the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball First and Second Rounds at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa, on March, 22 and 24, 2008. The site will host eight teams and if Iowa State is selected for the 2008 NCAA Tournament, it is guaranteed that the Cyclones will be one of the eight teams that will play in Des Moines. The teams selected to play in Des Moines will be announced on the NCAA Selection Show on ESPN Monday, March 17, 2008.

Fans can purchase all-session tickets ($35 for adults and $20 for students and youth) and single-session tickets ($15 for adults and $10 for students and youth per session). A single-session ticket will be available the week of the event and each session will include two games. Anyone 18 and under and all college students qualify for the student/youth fee. Fans can purchase tickets online at www.dahlstickets.com or by calling 1-8866-55DAHLS (866-553-2457).

Preseason Picks
The Iowa State women's basketball team was picked sixth by the Big 12 Conference coaches in the 2007-08 preseason poll. Iowa State was ranked 36th by CBSSports.com in its preseason magazine. The Cyclones were one of seven teams from the Big 12 ranked by the magazine.