For the second year in a row, Iowa State’s women’s basketball team is on their way to the Sweet 16. Iowa State made a second half comeback to defeat a pesky Green Bay team on Tuesday night by a 60-56 final. Surprisingly, Iowa State’s top two players struggled from the field for the majority of the night. Alison Lacey went 3-of-12 from the floor while scoring 12 points. Meanwhile, Kelsey Bolte went 5-of-18. Still, Bolte buried a major 3-pointer with less than a minute to play and Iowa State will meet UCONN on Sunday.
After the game, Bolte and Lacey met members of the media for this Q&A.
Kelsey can you talk about that 3-pointer you hit in the final minute and how it unfolded?
KB: Everyone keeps asking me about that and it’s almost like a blur. Coach Fennelly just kept telling me to shoot it and not miss the same way that I had been missing it, the previous 10 shots I had taken. Don’t hit the front of the rim. You think about the shot that I hit but then you think about the huge defensive stop that Aus had. That was a lot bigger than the shot I hit. They didn’t get a shot off. The 3-pointer wasn’t the biggest thing that happened tonight.
Alison, what changed in the second half for your team?
AL: We just decided in the second half that we were lucky we were still in the game the way we played in the first half. We just decided that there was no way we were going out tonight without giving our best effort. We may not have played great but we played hard. That’s all we can ask for. We pulled out a win. I don’t know how we did it but I am so glad that we did.
Alison, on the next to last play, when you made the steal at half-court, can you describe what you saw and what you were trying to do?
AL: I saw a flashback of the first half and thought there was no way that I wasn’t catching this ball. I was on the floor. That is all I remember. I just remember seeing the ball come to me and thinking that there was no way the ball wasn’t going to be mine.
Kelsey, can you talk about what allowed Green Bay to jump out to the early 10-0 lead?
KB: They switched every screen. That was one of the biggest things tonight. They played very aggressive on defense and really pushed us on offense. They really were aggressive during the first couple minutes of the game. I don’t think it was that we necessarily weren’t ready, we really just kind of backed down during the first couple of minutes. We just got our engines going.
Alison, what goes through your mind during the last 10 minutes of a game? Does your mind wonder and think that it could be your last game?
AL: Not really. I think that in the last couple of seconds it kind of gets to you that this could be the last game played at Hilton for Iowa State. I think that it just motivates me more. They are one of the toughest teams I have ever played here. They are a really good team. When we made a run, they came back. It definitely crossed my mind in the last 17 seconds and eight seconds. It made me more motivated to get a stop. I wasn’t letting my last game in Hilton be a loss.
