Time for the Twister Sisters to head to Ft. Worth and take on the Horned Frogs in their second matchup of the season. The Cyclones took the first go around with relative ease, 78-47, and would look to take the season sweep on Saturday afternoon.
The game definitely didn’t start the same way as the previous against the Horned Frogs. The Cyclones fell behind 21-19 at the end of the first quarter after allowing a 7-0 run to close out the final 2 minutes. It was a very back-and-forth start to the game with both teams trading baskets and stops in a very entertaining quarter. The Cyclones shook off the slow start with what can only be described as a downpour of 3-point baskets in the 2nd quarter.
Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw had a pair to kick it off. Lexi Donarski added 2 as well as the Joens sisters, Ashley and Aubrey, both knocked one down each. The lights out shooting from Iowa State gave them a nice cushion heading to the break, 42-34. The Cyclones' offense just keep on rolling with each and every possession as the Cyclones looked to build and maintain their lead in the second half.
And build and maintain they did.
The Cyclones could do no wrong in the second half, nearly doubling their lead to 15 at the end of the 3rd quarter, and by then the 4th quarter was all about the flair. In total, the Cyclones ended with 19 three-pointers made on the day which helped out the fact that they didn’t particularly shoot free throws, only shooting (and making) 4 free throws on the day. They also didn’t get their usual amount of takeaways, only forcing 5 TCU turnovers, but when you shoot 19-36 from deep and 35-62 for the game, you can get away with that a little easier.
Led by Ashley Joens’ 32 point game, the Cyclone got at least 11 points from all 5 of their starters shooting a combined 33-55 on the game. The shooting was so good that even Morgan Kane found a 3-pointer in the 4th quarter to just increase the icing on an already full cake. The 5 starters combined for 86 of the Cyclones 93 points on the day in the 93-70 route.
Iowa State will take to the road again as their next matchup pins them in Austin, Texas to take on the currently 16th ranked Texas Longhorns on Wednesday the 16th at 7:00 p.m. on the Longhorn Network (barf)