Lacey, Cyclones Halt No. 15 Kansas State in OT, 66-65

Wednesday, March 12

Kansas City, Mo.

12:00 PM

Iowa State

20-11, 7-9

Kansas State

21-9, 13-3

Team	1	2	OT 1	F
Iowa State	24	29	13	66
Kansas State	25	28	12	65

Lacey, Cyclones Halt No. 15 Kansas State in OT, 66-65

03.12.2008 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: cyclones.com

KANSAS CITY, Mo.? Alison Lacey converted a conventional 3-point play on a full-court drive and lay-in with 0:04 seconds left to help Iowa State down No. 15 and top-seeded Kansas State, 66-65, in a wild overtime thriller Wednesday afternoon in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City.

"That was without question one of the greatest games I have ever been a part of," ISU head coach Bill Fennelly said. "Of course, I am proud of my team and I'm excited that our team gets to keep playing. We made some big plays today, plays that take a lot of heart, especially in overtime. Lacey made one of the greatest plays we have had at Iowa State."

Lacey, who scored six points in the final 0:11 seconds, helped the Cyclones erase a six-point overtime deficit with under a minute remaining. ISU, which improves to 20-11 on the season, reaches the semifinal round of the Big 12 Tournament for the seventh time in the last 11 seasons. The Cyclones will face No. 11 Texas A&M Wednesday at 6 p.m.

"Coach Fennelly told me that if we were down by two to take it to the box," Lacey said. "I ran across the court as fast as I could and really didn't know if it went in or not."

Iowa State took control early by making five-of-its-first-six shots from the floor to forge a 13-5 lead with 14:39 left in the first half. ISU used an 11-0 run sparked by a pair of 3-pointers from Lacey and one from Heather Ezell to help set the tone.

ISU's stingy defense kept the Wildcats at bay throughout much of the first half. KSU cut the lead to three points (19-16) on a Marlies Gipson bucket, but Ezell countered on the other end with a trifecta to push ISU back up 22-16 with 4:41 left before intermission.

KSU kept chipping away at the Cyclone lead, scoring the final seven points of the half to go into the break with a 25-24 advantage. Gipson scored two inside buckets in the final minute to sway the momentum toward the Wildcats.

An explosive 8-2 run to start the second half propelled the Cyclones to a 33-27 lead with 16:17 left in the game. Ezell buried two key 3-pointers in the run. However, the Wildcats answered with a 14-2 run to go ahead 41-35 at the 7:52 mark in the second half. Shalee Lehning scored six points and Gipson tallied four points in the Wildcat flurry.

The lead grew to eight points (43-35) while the Cyclones went cold. ISU went through a 10-minute stretch with just one field goal. But Ezell came up big again for ISU, drilling a pair of treys and scoring eight points in a 13-5 run to knot the game at 48-48 with 2:39 left in the game.

KSU's Danielle Zanotti and Ezell traded 3-pointers followed by a Lehning lay-up with 0:38 seconds left to put the Wildcats up 53-51. Ezell missed on a trey with 0:14 seconds left and the rebound was gathered by KSU's Kincaid, who was promptly fouled. She missed the front end of the one-and-one, giving the Cyclones one more chance. Lacey misfired on a wide open 3-point look in the corner, but Jocelyn Anderson grabbed the rebound and scored with 0:02 seconds left to force the extra session.

The Cyclones committed turnovers on their first two possessions of the overtime period to fall behind 59-53 with 2:57 left. Ashley Sweat scored on a conventional 3-point play followed by a Zanotti trey to help the Wildcats score the first six points of the extra period.

The KSU lead was five points (62-57) with less than 0:30 seconds remaining, but once again, Ezell hit a 3-pointer to cut the gap to two points with 0:20 seconds left. She fouled out of the game on the inbounds pass, sending Zanotti to the line. She made both free-throws to put KSU back up, 64-60 with 0:16 seconds left. Lacey then came down and quickly bombed a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 64-63 with just 0:11 ticks left on the clock. ISU once again fouled Zanotti, sending her back to the line. This time she made the first and missed the second, as the Wildcats clung to a 65-63 lead. Lacey then dribbled the length of the court and scored a lay-up and was fouled with 0:04 seconds left. The sophomore calmly sank the free-throw to once again put ISU on top, 66-65. KSU had one last chance, as Lehning raced down the court and put up a shot before the horn that spun around the rim twice before falling out.

Ezell continued her unbelievable shooting run in the tournament. The junior led ISU with 26 points behind a Big 12 Tournament-record eight 3-pointers. Ezell broke the record she set yesterday when she knocked down 7-of-11 shots from downtown in the Cyclones' 76-50 victory over Colorado in the first round. Ezell is now 15-of-24 from beyond the arc (62.5 percent) in ISU's two 2008 Big 12 Tournament games.

"It's too bad that (Heather) Ezell can't play all of her games here," Fennelly added.

Lacey finished the game with 17 points, going 4-of-9 from beyond the arc. Her four 3-pointers moved her into ISU's career top-10 in 3-pointers made. She ranks 10th with 127 career treys.