By: Mary Rominger
It’s down to the final three games of the season for the Cyclones after going head to head with the West Virginia Lady Mountaineers Saturday afternoon. With Iowa State’s eye on qualifying for the NCAA tournament in March, tonight was a must-win scenario for the team.
Iowa State came out strong with big performances from Jadda Buckley, Seanna Johnson and Bridget Carleton to defeat the Lady Mountaineers 68-53 and improve to (6-9) in Big 12 competition.
Heading into the match-up, Iowa State was coming off of a 79-68 victory over Texas Tech along with a 80-55 victory in their last meeting with West Virginia.
In the first quarter, West Virginia got into a handful of detrimental scoring droughts and Iowa State was able to obtain a 13-point advantage to enter the second.
Throughout the first frame, Iowa State had comfortable offensive production, but it was the Cyclone defense that was able to hold the West Virginia All-American candidate and offensive force, Tynice Martin, to 0-3 from the field.
The second quarter had a different theme for the Lady Mountaineers. West Virginia went 7-13 on the field from their previous 3-16. The WVU offense allowed themselves to fight back and hold a 3-point lead at one point in the quarter, but Iowa State fought back to lead 29-26 entering half-time.
Moving on to the third quarter, the Cyclones shot 35.3% against West Virginia’s 20%. That scoring edge gave the Iowa State an energizing 48-36 lead going into final frame.
In the final quarter, all areas of the Cyclones game clicked which gave the Lady Mountaineers no chance to obtain any lead.
Buckley finished the night with 20 points and 8 assists to lift her team handedly over the Mountaineers.
Iowa State is back in action next Tuesday on the road against Kansas at 7 p.m..