Completed Event: Women's Basketball versus UCF on January 31, 2026 , Win , 65, to, 52
Final
Women's Basketball
65
UCF
52
Iowa State University Athletics
Cyclones Come Up Just Short of No. 6 Oklahoma, 67-64
01.09.2008 | Women's Basketball
AMES, Iowa ? The Cyclones got a look at a last second shot to tie the game, but couldn't get it to drop as the Iowa State women's basketball team fell, 67- 64, to sixth-ranked Oklahoma Wednesday night at Hilton Coliseum to open Big 12 Conference play.
The newcomers for each team didn't blink at the prospect of playing their first conference contest, as ISU freshman Kelsey Bolte had the best game of her young career, scoring a career-high 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Oklahoma freshman Danielle Robinson matched her with 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting and seven rebounds.
Iowa State dropped to 11-3 on the season and 0-1 in the league, while Oklahoma improved to 10-2 on the campaign and 1-0 in conference play.
Iowa State took a three-point lead, 44-41, with 12 minutes to play and it looked like momentum had shifted the Cyclones' way. But Robinson converted a conventional three-point play to spark a 10-0 Sooner run for a 51-44 OU advantage. The Cyclones, however, found answers for the Sooners with each run.
ISU closed the gap to five, 51-46 on a basket by Jocelyn Anderson, and OU widened the margin back to nine, 55-46, before Nicky Wieben knocked down a pair of free throws with 5:50 to play for a 55-50 OU lead.
Even after the Sooners climbed to a 60-50 margin, the Cyclones didn't give in, as they answered with a 10-0 run of their own to tie the game with 1:47 remaining, 60-all. From there, it turned into a free throw contest that the Sooners clearly won. Iowa State was 15-of-24 from the charity stripe for the contest and Oklahoma was 12-of-16, but even despite ISU's poor free throw shooting, the Cyclones had one last look at the basket by Alison Lacey, but couldn't get it to fall to tie the game and send it to overtime.
“That was a great college game,” ISU head coach Bill Fennelly said. “Both teams played hard and played well. Obviously Kelsey Bolte was amazing. She kept us in the game. There are a lot of things that happened in the game but the bottom line was we couldn't make our free throws. Tonight it cost us the game. We shot hundreds of free throws over break. I thought we played really hard, but the level of separation in this league is minimal.”
The two teams got off to a rugged start as the Cyclones forced Oklahoma into six turnovers, while Iowa State went 0-for-8 from the field over the first five minutes of the contest. The Sooners took a 25-19 lead into the lockerroom, but had outrebounded ISU, 28-16, at the break, including grabbing 10 off the offensive glass.
Courtney Paris finished the game with 12 points and 15 rebounds, while she spent most of the second half in foul trouble. Lacey had her seventh straight game in double figures for the Cyclones with 11 points, but she struggled from the field going 4-of-17 on the night.
Iowa State shot 39.3 percent for the contest and 38.5 percent from long range, while the Sooners shot 46.4 percent for the game and just 21.4 percent from beyond the arc. OU outrebounded ISU, 45-27, for the contest.
The Cyclones will spend the next two games on the road, traveling to Colorado for a 3 p.m. game on Sunday, and then to Texas next Wednesday.
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