Iowa State Cyclones’ guard Emily Ryan (11) defends as as St. Thomas Tommies’ guard Faith Feuerbach (5) looks for pass the ball during the first quarter in the NCAA women’s basketball at Hilton Coliseum on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, in Ames, Iowa. © Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
CEDAR FALLS – Maya McDermott hit a 3-pointer late in the third quarter to give UNI a five-point lead over No. 8 Iowa State as part of a 13-0 run in Wednesday’s in-state rivalry game.
The energy shifted, and the Panthers looked like they knew they had something in what ended as an 87-75 win for UNI, its first ever against a top 10 team.
“Both teams had big opportunities to hit big shots in big moments,” Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said. “They made them, we didn’t.”
During parts of the game, it was as simple as that.
UNI’s trio of top scorers were as successful at the 3-point line as anyone rooting on the Panthers could hope. McDermott, who finished with 37 points, Kayba Laube and Elise Jaeger combined to go 11-15 from behind the arc.
“I think it was 53-45 and we had five straight wide open shots, (we) missed them,” Fennelly said. “One of them was a long rebound that turned into a 3 by them. They had a couple of kids that didn’t make a ton of shots but they made them at really big times and we just couldn’t recover from that.”
“I think it was again, a probably 4-minute spurt and then the end of the third quarter, it was a three point game. We missed two free throws and make two defensive errors and again, they make big 3’s and now it’s a 9-point game. We’ve got to clean that up obviously. In games like this, those two, three possessions, swing the game quickly.”
During the 13-0 run, Iowa State committed five of its 14 turnovers in the game, and went on a scoreless streak for over six minutes – something that showed in this team early in the season a year ago, as well.
Jaeger, a freshman forward for UNI that went 3-4 from the 3-point line with five rebounds, chalked it up to how much the Panthers wanted to win this.
“We wanted to win a lot more than they did,” Jaeger said.
UNI limited Audi Crooks in the first half, holding her to just six points in the opening frames before she finished with 22 points and 10 boards in a rally that came up short.
The Panthers did the same to Emily Ryan in the final two quarters. The point guard didn’t score in the final 20 and Iowa State committed 10 of its turnovers.
“They doubled her a lot,” Fennelly said. “They jumped passing lanes a little bit. I thought we took some shots that we shouldn’t have taken – some people that I think we could have made one more pass, but then you miss a couple and now its in your head. We missed some free throws. Sometimes you’re just like, ‘maybe I’m not going to pull the trigger when I should.’ Some of its really good defense. Some of its unlucky offense. That’s basketball. Certainly something that hurt us at the end of the third quarter.”
The Cyclones drop to 4-1 on the year with loss, and another in-state opponent coming in its next game.
“These in-state games are really hard,” Fennelly said. “That’s why the men don’t play them, and we do. Like I said before the game, this is a ridiculously stupid scheduling thing on my part, to play this game, but we want to do it, because it’s great for basketball in our state… We have a really tough game on Sunday. That was the last thing I told them – we’ve got to make a choice.
Iowa State will try and leave the result from Wednesay behind when it returns to the court to face Drake on Sunday (2:00 p.m. ESPN+).
