Recap: Fennelly’s Cyclones now 7-1

By Chris Moore, CF WBB Blogger

The Iowa State women’s basketball team improved to 7-1 yesterday with a 77-60 win over Minnesota at Williams arena. Here’s a complete recap.

– Allison Lacey got into early foul trouble against the Gophers but Whitney Williams stepped up big and the Cyclones up by four at the end of the first half.

– Iowa State may have only gone 5-of-12 from 3-point range on the game but the Cyclones shot 26-32 from the free-throw line.

– The Gophers did a nice job of keeping the Cyclones in check as the Iowa State only had 11 assists and committed 11 turnovers. But Iowa State still shot the ball well as they finished the game 48.9 percent from the field, while the Gophers only shot 33.3 percent.

– It looks like Chelsea Poppens is finally getting into the flow of big-time college basketball. Poppens had a double double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. She also tacked on two blocks.

– Allison Lacey and Whitney Williams ran the show for the Cyclones by scoreing 23 and 17. Between the two, they had six assists and two turnovers.

– Denae Stuckey continues to make all the hustle plays and be a huge contributor without scoring a lot. Stuckey had five points, six rebounds, three assists, one block and zero turnovers. The only thing I would like to see Stuckey do is make more of her free throws as she was 1-5 on the night.

Moore’s take:

Overall I was very pleased on how this team played on the road against a quality Big Ten opponent. This was a complete team effort and they beat a very aggressive Gopher team. The thing that really has impressed me is how Chelsea Poppens has stepped up. It’s not that I didn’t think she would, it’s just the way she has. Against Iowa and Minnesota she averaged 11.5 points, 7 rebounds, and two blocks. She’s stepped up against the best competition this team has seen so far. If Poppens can continue to play this way Iowa State will be tough to beat.

I also would like to say thank you to Iowa State for providing buses for fans to travel to the game at a very cheap price of $45. I believe we brought around 200 Fanatics and were louder then the 4000 Gopher fans. So good job to all the fans that went and congrats to Bill Fennelly and his team for a great win.