Cyclone Women survive scare from UNI

It’s never easy when the UNI Panthers come to town and Sunday evening was no different. The Panthers went toe-to-toe with the 15th ranked Cyclones at Hilton Coliseum, outscoring them in 3 of the 4 quarters. Where did the Cyclones make up for that? Oh, just a casual 17-3 domination of the 2nd quarter. With a mix of a suffocating defense and hitting timely shots on the offensive end, the Cyclones took an 11 point lead into the half after being outscored 20-17 in the first quarter.

Much of the success from the Cyclones offense came down low with the frontcourt duo of Morgan Kane and Beatriz Jordao who combined to go 10-12 from the floor for 21 points and 11 rebounds (all from Morgan Kane.) Speaking of those 11 rebounds, that set a new career-high for the redshirt junior, and tacking on her 13 points made tonight her first career double/double. Morgan wasn’t the only Cyclone to crack double digits in the scoring department though, as she was joined by Ashley Joens (duh) with 12 and leading scorer Lexi Donarski who dropped 19 on 6-13 shooting, hitting 4 of 5 from deep.

On the defensive side, the Cyclones had no answer for Kam Finley who shot 10-16 from the floor (6-8 from deep) and totaled 28 points. She was a major part of the Panthers’ comeback effort in the 3rd quarter, accounting for 14 of the Panthers’ 22 points (12 points and an assist) in the 3rd quarter. The rest of the Panthers went 3-19 from deep, so it wasn’t like the Cyclones struggled defensively. Sometimes you just gotta pat the opponent on the back and say “nice game.” Kam definitely had one of those in Hilton, but the Cyclones did clutch up late getting a big 3 from Ashley Joens with just over 2:00 to go.

That shot would prove to be just enough as Finley and the Panthers got 8 points in the final 2 minutes to close the gap to 70-69, but a big Ashley Joens block followed by a missed shot underneath from Karli Rucker would end the game as the Cyclones survived by just that 1 point.

The Cyclones are off for finals week before playing next Sunday vs. Prairie View A&M

BOX SCORE

NORTHERN IOWA PANTHERS

IOWA STATE CYCLONES