Twister Sisters Season Ends at The Sweet Sixteen to Creighton

After breezing past Georgia in the round of 32, Iowa State was looking to get into the same type of game against the Bluejays as the Cyclones took on Creighton in their first Sweet 16 since the 2009-2010 season.

Nyamer Diew got the scoring started for the twister sisters with a quickfire 3 made it feel as if it was going to be more of the same. However, after that early bucket, Iowa State came out of the gates cold from behind the arc. After both teams played some lock-up defense for a majority of the quarter the basket opened up from deep for both sides. Ashley Joens hit a 3 which saw ISU go into the second quarter up 16-13.

Both teams came into the quarter cold. With only 4 points scored between both teams for the first minutes of the second until an Emily Ryan exploded in the second quarter scoring 11 including a step-back 3 which ended up getting both team's offenses going again. It felt like every time that the Cyclones started to pull away Creighton would answer and tie it back up. If ISU made a 3, Creighton would make a 3. If Iowa State got a free layup, Creighton got a free layup. This unsurprisingly lead to the game being tied at 30 going into halftime. Morgan Maly was the main factor for the Bluejays with 14 of their 30.

Creighton got the lead at the start of the 3rd and would not give it up heading into the 4th. Stifling defense along with the Bluejays hitting 3 straight shots from behind the arc allowed Creighton to start pulling away in a game where neither team had been able to create distance from the other. Long balls from Diew and Joens kept it close, but Morgan Maly scored 5 in the final minute that saw Creighton head into the final period up 59-51.

An 8 point deficit would be a difficult margin to overcome for any team struggling to score, and it didn’t get any better. Behind the continued consistent scoring from Brotski and Rembao, Creighton extended their lead to 13 with 7 min left in the game. Lexi Donarski and Emily Ryan were trying their hardest to claw ISU back into the game scoring going on their own 11-4 run. The Cyclones managed to get back to only a 3 point game with 30 seconds left but that would be as close as they would get.

Four of the Twister Sisters starters ended up in double figures and 22 from Emily Ryan would usually kill most opponents, but a Morgan Maly 21 bomb off the bench and 18 from Rambao was ultimately the difference maker from Creighton.

GAME STATS

Iowa State Cyclones

Creighton Bluejays

Twister Sisters bow out at 28-7, ending one of the most exciting seasons in school history.