By Jacob Lee
Heading into this early season non-conference tilt vs. in-state rival UNI, head coach Bill Fennelly had never lost to the in-state foe. Now in his 22nd season at Iowa State, Bill Fennelly was 8-0 all-time vs. the Panthers. However, there is always a flip side. UNI head coach Tonya Warren was 0-8 all-time vs. the Cyclones. After tonight the script didn’t change. Iowa State beat the Panthers of Northern Iowa 76-68. So now Bill Fennelly is 9-0 vs. the Panthers in his career. More importantly, Iowa State owns the all-time series record vs. UNI at 36-7. The streak still stands where UNI has never beaten the Cyclones in Hilton (17-0), and UNI has yet to win a game in this series since 2002.
Jadda Buckley led the way for the Cyclones scoring 25 points on 8-12 of shooting and a perfect 8-8 from the charity stripe. Seanna Johnson also grabbed a career high 18 rebounds to go along with 15 points. Earlier in the week UNI head coach Tonya Warren called Johnson “a matchup nightmare” and a matchup nightmare she was. Johnsons play tonight led Warren to make the same comment after the game in her postgame press conference.
Heading into tonight one big key Coach Fennelly preached this week leading up to the game was defensive rebounding, or lack there-of. Even though ISU won the rebound battle vs. UCSB last Friday Fennelly still wasn’t impressed. Iowa State won the rebound battle again tonight 39-35.
Iowa State now 2-0 on the young season looks to get their third win of the year Sunday, November 20th in Hilton vs. Drake, another in-state rivalry game. The game tips off at 6:00 pm.
