Cyclones Face Colorado in Big 12 First Round

03.07.2008 | Women's Basketball

By: cyclones.com

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 ? Noon
Kansas City, Mo. ? Municipal Auditorium (9,338)
Radio: Cyclone Radio Network/Learfield
Talent: Rich Fellinghan (pxp); Brent Blum (color)
Television: Metro Sports (Kansas City), Mediacom (Iowa)
Talent: Erin Bajackson (pxp); Brenda VanLengen (color)

Cyclone Notebook
- Iowa State will travel to Kansas City, Mo., to face Colorado at noon on Tuesday in the first round of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship. The Cyclones take the No. 8 seed into the tournament, while the Buffaloes are the No. 9 seed. Iowa State finished the regular season with an 18-11 overall mark and a 7-9 league record, while Colorado went 16-13 overall and 5-11 in the conference. The winner will face the No. 1 seed, Kansas State, at noon on Wednesday.
- The Iowa State-Colorado game will be telecast live on Metro Sports in Kansas City, and will be shown live on Mediacom Connections channel 22. Erin Bajackson will call the action, while Brenda VanLengen provides analysis. The final three rounds of the tournament will be televised by Fox Sports Net.
- Iowa State front court starters Toccara Ross and Nicky Wieben will miss the remainder of the 2007-08 season due to torn ACLs. Ross tore the ACL in her right knee against Minnesota and Wieben tore the ACL in her left knee at Texas. Ross is eligible for a redshirt, while Wieben is not.
- Iowa State will return its entire roster next season. Ross is ISU's only senior and should be eligible for another year of competition after her season-ending injury.
- With a 76-50 win over Montana State, the Cyclones collected their 500th win in program history. They are now 514-483 overall. ISU is three games shy of 1,000 contests in school history.
- Colorado is 16-13 this season and finished the season ninth in the final Big 12 standings with a 5-11 league mark. The Buffaloes have won three out of their last five, including defeating Missouri, 63-47, at home on Wednesday.
- Colorado leads the all-time series with Iowa State 36-24. Iowa State won both meetings during the regular season, including a double-overtime victory in Boulder. ISU has won eight of the last nine meetings. The two teams last met in the Big 12 Championship in 2005, when Iowa State was the fifth seed and defeated CU, 64-62, in the opening round.
- The Cyclones have won 17 straight at home against non-conference opponents. Iowa State finished 13-4 overall at Hilton this year.
- 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.
- 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 277-130 at Iowa State and in his 13th season with the Cyclones. He is 443-183 in his head coaching career, which began at Toledo in 1988.

A Closer Look At Colorado
- Colorado has won three out of its last five games to finish 16-13 overall in the regular season and 5-11 in the Big 12, for a ninth-place finish in the standings. The Buffaloes defeated Missouri at home on Wednesday, 63-47. CU also has home wins over Texas and Kansas State in the last three weeks and road losses at Baylor and Nebraska.
- Colorado is led by senior Jackie McFarland with 17.8 points and 8.1 rebounds per game. She ranks third in Big 12 scoring and is second in the league in field goal percentage at 56.6 percent. She is also fifth in the conference in rebounding. She led CU with 25 points, including going 12-for-12 from the charity stripe, and 14 rebounds against Mizzou.
- CU freshman Brittany Spears is second on the team with 13.8 points per game and Bianca Smith is averaging 10 ppg.
- Colorado is averaging 66.2 points per game this season, but just 63.1 pg in Big 12 contests. CU is shooting the ball at a 42.0 percent clip and is hitting 31.6 percent from beyond the arc. Colorado has posted 13.9 assists per game to 18.0 turnovers.
- Colorado head coach Kathy McConnell-Miller is in her third season overseeing the Buff program. She is 38-51 at CU and 129-139 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.

Iowa State Big 12 Championship Fun Facts
- Iowa State has won more Big 12 Championship games than any team in the league with 18.
- Iowa State is 18-9 in the Big 12 Championship since it began in 1997. The Cyclones are 13-5 in conference tournament games in Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City.
- ISU has been the eighth seed seven times in school history, but only twice in Big 12 history, including the 2003 season.
- Iowa State is 3-6 against Colorado in conference tournament appearances, but defeated CU in the last championship meeting between the two schools, 64-62, in 2005.
- The Cyclones have made it to four title games in the 11 years of the Big 12 Championship. The only team to play in more Big 12 Championship finals is Oklahoma, which has played in five.
- Iowa State holds the best record of any team in the first round (6-1) and the semifinal round (4-2).
- As the No. 5 seed last season, Iowa State made it to the Big 12 Championship title game before falling to Oklahoma 67-60. The Cyclones defeated Kansas State in the first round. Iowa State took down Nebraska in overtime in the second round and defeated 13th-ranked Texas A&M in the semifinals.

Quick Hits
- Iowa State finished tied with Texas for seventh place in the final Big 12 standings with a 7-9 league record. ISU had three players average double figures in league games, led by Alison Lacey with 15.0 points per contest. Freshman Kelsey Bolte averaged 12.8 ppg. Nicky Wieben posted 10.3 ppg in the Big 12 before being sidelined for the rest of the season with an injury in the Texas game. Heather Ezell posted 9.1 points a game in conference action.
- 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.
- Freshman Kelsey Bolte scored 20 or more points in each of her first four Big 12 games, becoming the first freshman in league history to do so, and contributed double figures in 10 league games. She averaged 12.8 ppg in conference play.
- The Cyclones hit nine treys at Nebraska and are now averaging 7.5 threes per game for the season. A Cyclone player has hit five or more treys in seven different contests this season. Alison Lacey has hit three or more treys in 12 of the last 22 games, and has hit five or more on five occasions.
- Junior Nicky Wieben was in double digits in 11 games this season, before being sidelined for the season with a knee injury. Wieben led the Cyclones in scoring in six contests.
- Nicky Wieben and Jocelyn Anderson have combined for 98 of ISU's 138 blocked shots this season. Wieben averaged 2.2 blocks per game after swatting seven in the first half against Hampton. She holds the ISU class record for freshmen and sophomores and finished the season fourth on the junior list with 35. Anderson blocked seven shots against Baylor and holds the Iowa State single-season record as well as the junior class record with 63 blocked shots this season. She ranks ninth on the all-time ISU career list and is averaging 2.2 per contest.
- Amanda Nisleit is averaging 6.2 ppg after entering the season averaging 1.6 for her career. She is averaging 4.7 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. Nicky Wieben added the third of the year at Colorado with 14 points and 11 boards. Alison Lacey claimed the fourth double-double of the season and came very close to a triple-double vs. Missouri with 14 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. Most recently, Jocelyn Anderson has earned the first two double-doubles of her career against Baylor and Missouri.
- 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.

A Touch of Class
Amanda Nisleit and Alison Lacey were named to the 2008 Academic All-Big 12 Teams. Nisleit was named to the academic first team, boasting a 3.82 grade-point average in elementary education. The Woodbury, Minn., has won the award for two consecutive seasons. Lacey earned a spot on the second team after posting a 3.13 GPA in her last two semesters combined in communication studies.

Anderson's Turnaround
Junior Jocelyn Anderson hit 15 consecutive free throws before missing one with just under seven minutes to go in the second half against Baylor. The streak began in the Kansas State game and spanned four games. Before the Kansas State game, Anderson was shooting 48.4 percent from the charity stripe. Anderson knocked down a key pair of free throws at the end of the game to clinch the win at Mizzou and is now shooting 55.9 percent from the stripe.

On Record
Jocelyn Anderson rewrote the Iowa State single-season blocked shots record in the game against Kansas. Anderson has 63 blocks this season, knocking off Nicky Wieben's record, which she set last season with 62. Anderson also ranks ninth on the Iowa State all-time career chart. She blocked a career-high seven shots, one shy of the ISU single-game record, against Baylor.

Record Set
Junior Nicky Wieben broke Angie Welle's Iowa State career record for blocked shots against Texas, before suffering her season-ending knee injury. Wieben reset the record at 156 blocked shots in her first three seasons at ISU. Welle set the previous record from 1998 to 2002 with 155. Wieben is also now seventh on the Big 12 career list.

Build It and They Will Come
In the national attendance rankings which were last put out on Monday, March 3, by the University of Wisconsin, ISU ranked fifth nationally in fans per game with 9,388. Iowa State had 11,824 fans at the Kansas game, which ranks 20th on the Iowa State all-time attendance list.

Last Time Out
Iowa State hit nine treys, and Nebraska drained eight, but the inside game proved to be the difference as the Huskers defeated ISU, 55-45, Wednesday night in Lincoln. The Cyclones outrebounded NU, 33-28, but allowed the Huskers to shoot 45.8 percent from the field, and committed 14 costly turnovers leading to the loss. Alison Lacey led the Cyclones with 14 points, including going 4-of-6 from beyond the arc, while Heather Ezell finished with 11 points. Amanda Nisleit led ISU on the glass with eight rebounds. ISU's post players contributed just eight points in the loss, as Nebraska clogged up the lane and made it hard to score inside the entire contest. The game was close through the first 10 minutes of the first half, before Nebraska finally separated itself, 17-13. With two minutes to go in the period, NU went up 29-18. Iowa State cut the lead to four, 33-29, on a three by Lacey with 15 minutes to go. Nebraska went up by as many as 15, but ISU was able to cut the lead to nine, 50-41, with three minutes remaining. Iowa State got no closer the rest of the way.

Bench Production
Since freshman Kelsey Bolte and junior Jocelyn Anderson have entered the starting lineup full-time, the Cyclone bench production has dropped off significantly. Going into the game at Texas, Iowa State was averaging 18.6 points per game off the bench. In the last 13 games, the Cyclone bench has produced just 58 points for a 4.5 ppg average.

Weekly Big 12 Honors
Iowa State earned five Big 12 weekly honors this season, with accolades most recently going to freshman Kelsey Bolte. She was named Big 12 Rookie of the Week last Monday, the third time since the start of Big 12 action she has won the honor. Bolte was named Big 12 Rookie of the Week during the first two weeks of conference play, after four straight games with 20+ points.

Bolte averaged 10.0 points and 6.5 rebounds in a loss to No. 17 Kansas State and a win at No. 15 Oklahoma State last week. Against the Wildcats, the freshman guard went 4-of-8 from the field and finished with eight points, five rebounds and two assists. In the win over the Cowgirls, Bolte was 4-of-7 from the floor, including hitting a pair of treys and a pair of free throws for 12 points. The Ida Grove, Iowa, native also led the Cyclones with eight rebounds, and passed out one assist.

Alison Lacey was named Big 12 Player of the Week on Feb. 11 after she averaged 23 points, six rebounds, and five assists in Iowa State's wins over Texas Tech and Missouri last week. In the Cyclones' win over Texas Tech, Lacey tallied 32 points, including 5 three-pointers. She went 11-of-23 from the floor and 5-of-11 from long-range. Against the Tigers, Lacey came close to her first career triple-double with 14 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.

Junior Heather Ezell was named 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.

Luck is Changing
In their first four games decided by five or less points, the Cyclones came up on the short end. Iowa State had lost four games in conference play by three points, but two of its last three league wins have come by margins of five (Oklahoma State) and four points (Missouri). ISU also fell to Baylor by four points.

Two of a Kind
Alison Lacey and Heather Ezell have combined for 131 of Iowa State's 217 three-pointers this season. As of Monday, March 3, Lacey was 33rd in the nation in three-point percentage. She also ranked 29th in three-pointers per game.

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

Lacey has hit a three-pointer in all but one game this season. Ezell has had at least one in 22 of the Cyclones' 29 games. Lacey has hit three or more in 13 games this season, including 12 of the last 22. Ezell has hit three or more eight times.

Taking Care of the Ball
Sophomore point guard Alison Lacey is in her first season as Iowa State's starting point guard, but has aged quickly, ranking 65th nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (as of March 3). She has been a key cog in making the ISU offense run this season, passing out 3.9 assists per game, while committing just 2.4 turnovers per contest. In Big 12 contests, Lacey has had 57 assists and 39 turnovers.

70 Is the Magic Number
ISU is 65-5 (.929) in the last five seasons when scoring 70+ points in a game. The Cyclones snapped a 24-game win streak when reaching the 70-point mark against Nebraska. The streak dated back to a 79-71 OT win over Wisconsin-Green Bay on March 16, 2006.

Getting Defensive
Iowa State has held opponents to 55.1 points per game and Nebraska and Kansas State are the only two teams to break the 70-point mark in regulation against ISU this season. The Cyclones lead the nation in fewest fouls per game with 12.8 per game. ISU's opponents have shot 38.3 percent from the floor and 32.3 percent from three-point range. ISU has forced opponents into 13.9 turnovers per game.

Nationally Speaking
ISU ranked in the top 25 in five NCAA statistical categories, released March 3, including leading the nation in fewest personal fouls per game (12.9). The Cyclones are eighth in three-pointers per game (7.4), 16th in turnovers per game (14.1) and 24th in blocked shots per game. Iowa State was also 16th in scoring defense. On an individual level, Alison Lacey is 33rd in three-point percentage, 29th in threes per game and 65th in assist-to-turnover ratio. Jocelyn Anderson is 28th in blocked shots. Heather Ezell is 96th in assist-to-turnover ratio as well.

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 three-pointers per game (7.5), three-point percentage (.362), scoring defense (55.1) and rebounding defense. Iowa State is second in assist-to-turnover ratio. The Cyclones are fifth in free throw percentage (.690) and rebounding margin (+3.9), and are sixth in blocked shots (4.8). Individually, Alison Lacey leads the league in three-point percentage (.410) and is second in three-pointers made with 2.6 per contest. Heather Ezell is seventh in three-pointers made with 1.9 pg and Kelsey Bolte is 15th (1.3). Lacey and Ezell also rank fourth and fifth, respectively, in assist-to-turnover ratio. Lacey is 12th in scoring (14.5 ppg) and sixth in assists (3.9), while Ezell is 13th in assists (3.1). Jocelyn Anderson is sixth in blocked shots per game (2.2).

Down on the Block
Junior Nicky Wieben finished in double figures against Colorado (14), marking the 45th time in her ISU career she has scored in double digits and the 11th time this season to score 10+ points for the Cyclones.

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 in Big 12 regular-season wins by current league coaches with 117, behind Coale (121).

Trey Bien
Iowa State has made at least one three-pointer in 410 consecutive games dating back to 1995. That streak now ranks second in the nation. Canisius College unofficially holds the longest current streak at 419 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. Fans can purchase tickets online at www.dahlstickets.com or by calling 1-8866-55DAHLS (866-553-2457).