The hot shooting returned to the Iowa State lineup on Sunday afternoon, despite the team having played just one game in the past 18 days.
Iowa State went into Lubbock, Texas, to face the Red Raiders and hit a school record 19 3-pointers in the 99-72 win.
“Obviously, when we shoot the three we get a chance to do some good things,” Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly said. I thought we had some good looks. (Lexi Donarski) came out on fire.”
Iowa State as a team hit each of its first three long-shot attempts, forcing Texas Tech to call a timeout after getting out to a quick 9-0 lead.
The Cyclones started out 4-of-4 with Donarski making each of her first four attempts from the line.
“When you see the ball going in and good things are happening, it translates through the whole group,” Fennelly said. “Not only did we make 19, 19-40 is a great percentage too.”
Donarski led the team in scoring Sunday with 25 points, making 7-of-19 3-pointers on the day.
She was one of five Cyclones in double figures.
“It felt really good,” Donarski said. “Our team is super unselfish and we made a lot of extra passes to open up a lot of three’s for us. That record has been set for a little bit now so it was really nice to break it.”
Fennelly called Donarski’s play on Sunday as good as it’s ever been.
Emily Ryan was another Cyclone that made some progress against Texas Tech.
Ryan finished the game with 14 points and 12 assists to just two turnovers in 26 minutes.
“(Ryan) has done such a good job,” Fennelly said. “She really sees the floor. Her teammates love playing with her because she is a pass-first guard. Early in the game we were making a lot of shots, and she was delivering the ball.”
Fennelly said that part of Iowa State’s goal for the game was to get Ryan down to two turnovers, because she had been averaging somewhere around three per game coming in.
Mission accomplished for Ryan, who has only seemed to get better, like each of the freshman.
Kristin Scott exited the game early after hitting her head on the floor.
Fennelly said after the game that Scott didn’t return because of precautionary reasons, even though she wanted to try to get back on the floor.
Sunday’s win also improves the team to 7-4 (3-1 Big 12) heading into a six-game stretch that features undefeated Oklahoma State and Baylor twice.
It’s exactly what you want to see if you’re Fennelly going into the incoming slate.
“I thought we played really well,” Fennelly said. “Every person scored except for one. We didn’t overtax anyone minutes-wise. We won every quarter. With the exception of the free throw attempts by Texas Tech, statistically, I don’t know if you can look at anything and not say it was a really good game by Iowa State.”
