Three-pointers Sink Bluder's Bunch

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Dec. 10, 2009

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AMES, Iowa – Iowa State’s Alison Lacey tortured the Iowa Hawkeyes all night on her way to a triple-double inside Hilton Coliseum on Thursday night. The Cyclones put the Hawkeyes away early to earn a win in the HyVee Cy-Hawk Series, 85-66.

“It’s a tough place to play,” UI Head Coach Lisa Bluder said. “They play well here and play with a lot of confidence. They are very emotional when they play and they did a good job.”

Iowa had trouble defending the arc and Iowa State took advantage, torching them for 16 three-pointers. The Cyclones were led by Lacey who had a triple-double with 19 points, 11 rebounds, and 13 assists. It was only the second triple-double in Cyclones history. The Hawkeyes shot well in the first half, but struggled in the second half and the Cyclones pulled away.

The Hawkeyes (5-5 overall) shot 24 of 50 (48 percent) from the field, 9 of 17 (53 percent) from long range and 9 of 9 from the free throw line. The Cyclones went 28 of 62 (45 percent) from the floor, 16 of 34 (47 percent) from three-point range and 13 of 17 (77 percent) from the charity stripe. The Hawkeyes were hurt by turnovers with 19 as the Cyclones capitalized with 29 points off turnovers.

“They are a good shooting team, but they have been that way all year long,” Bluder said. “This wasn’t an unusual performance for them and they have been shooting extremely well from three-point range. We shot better than they did from three point range, we just didn’t get enough of them.”

Jaime Printy led Iowa in scoring with 14 points, Morgan Johnson had 13, and Theairra Taylor added 10 points. Johnson led the Hawkeyes with 11 rebounds and added four assists along with Trisha Nesbitt.

The Hawkeyes shot the ball well early and were able to get out to a quick lead, but the Cyclones started to shoot a barrage of three’s in taking advantage of Iowa’s zone defense. Despite all of the three-point shots the Cyclones were getting to fall, the Hawkeyes hung in there tough.

The Cyclones had a sizeable lead after Kelsey Bolte hit from long range, but Johnson came right back and hit one from the top of the key to trail 29-24. Iowa State’s Chassidy Cole continued the long range threat with 4:19 remaining for a 32-24 lead.

Ames native Trisha Nesbitt drove the lane and was fouled by Chelsea Poppens who hit the deck hard, but was called for the offensive foul. Nesbitt hit the layup and free throw to cut the Cyclones lead to five points.

That was as close as the Hawkeyes would come after Iowa State went on an 11-0 run to close out the half 43-29. The Cyclones went 11 of 22 in the first half from behind-the-arc. Iowa State wasted no time and went back to what worked in the first half when Whitney Williams opened the second half draining a shot from three-point range. Poppens followed with a jumper before Iowa’s Theairra Taylor hit from deep from the left side of the arc to trail 48-32.

Iowa’s second leading scorer with Kachine Alexander out, Printy, was hit with her fourth foul with 16:20 still remaining. That hurt the Hawkeyes who are already playing with a small cast of players.

The Hawkeyes resorted back to zone defense and quickly gave up two three’s as Iowa State took a commanding 20-point lead. The Hawkeyes struck back with two three’s from Kelly Krei and another from Kamille Wahlin and saw themselves in striking distance, down 61-47 with 11:31 left in the game.

“I thought `okay here is our opportunity’,” Bluder said. “Here we can get going right now and we just couldn’t get it going. It comes down to missed box-outs and too many turnovers. We shot the ball better than they did in every statistical category, but they shot the ball 12-more times than we did. You can’t let a team shoot that many more times than you.”

The Cyclones kept pushing and slowed down the pace of the game with a imposing lead already in place. Their offensive aggressiveness put them in the double-bonus early and helped get them to the charity stripe for a 68-47 advantage.

The Hawkeyes were unrelenting, but the Cyclones continued to drain three-point shots. Iowa, who has been in every game this season, could not match Iowa State’s offensive tempo and the Cyclones pulled away, amassing a 30-point lead at one point.

The Hawkeyes will get some rest before they play on Sunday Dec. 20 against another in-state rival, Drake University, at Carver-Hawkeye Arena with a 1 p.m. tipoff.