Purdue Fort Wayne
Iowa State
`Dons Fall to No. 25 Iowa State 84-57
1/7/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 7, 2009
Ames, IA - The IPFW Mastodons faced a nationally ranked team for the second time in their last three games, falling to the 25th ranked (ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll) Cyclones of Iowa State University by a score of 84-57.
IPFW (2-12) was led by a career-high scoring night from Sarah Haluska, who tallied 13 points, with Courtney Reed scoring 11. Maggie O'Connell scored nine points, with Chelsey Jackson chipping in eight. Reed and Haluska each pulled down five rebounds to tie for the team lead, with Reed dishing out a team-best three assists.
The teams battled to open the game, with IPFW leading by as many as three at 8-5 following an O'Connell basket with 16:16 remaining on the first-half clock. Iowa State (12-2), who knocked off nationally ranked Vanderbilt in their most recent game, responded with a 7-0 run to lead by four, until IPFW cut the deficit to three at 15-12 with 10:31 to play in the frame.
IPFW came into the game ranked eighth in the country in three-point baskets made; however, it was the Cyclones that looked like a national leader in the category, as ISU's Heather Ezell scored the game's next nine points on a trio of long-range baskets over the team's next four possessions, before Alison Lacey hit another three-pointer, giving the Cyclone's their fourth long-range shot over the course of five possessions, capping a 12-0 run by the hosts.
A quick 4-0 IPFW run on baskets by Eva Ivanova and Jackson cut the deficit down to 11. A back-and-forth stretch over the next three minutes saw the `Dons trailing by 11 following another basket by O'Connell with 3:51 to play, until Ezell and Lacey hit back-to-back three-pointers to push the host's lead to 17 at 37-20.
IPFW's deficit grew to as many as 22 with 37 seconds left in the first half before Reed hit a jumper with four seconds on the clock to send the `Dons into the locker room trailing by 20 at 44-24.
IPFW had a promising start to the second half as Haluska drained a long-range basket, cutting the deficit to 17, before the teams then traded baskets, putting the `Dons down again by 17 a minute into the frame. The hosts followed by scoring seven straight points to push the lead to 24.
The `Dons would get only as close as 22 the rest of the way, as the Cyclones put the game on cruise control in the 27-point Iowa State win.
The 'Dons hit 38.6 percent (22-of-57) of their shots from the field, while making 9-of-25 (36.0%) long range shots. Iowa State hit exactly half of their 58 field goal attempts in the game, while making 10-of-24 (41.7%) from long range.
After turning the ball over a Division I school-record-low five times against North Dakota State, the 'Dons gave Iowa State 17 turnovers, which they turned into 27 points, out-scoring IPFW 27-5 on points off of turnovers. The Cyclones also out-rebounded IPFW 38-29, and held a 19-10 advantage on second-chance points, and a 36-20 lead on points in the paint.
Heather Ezell scored a game-high 19 points, all in the first half, with Alison Lacey and Amanda Nisleit scoring 16 and 11, respectively. Lacey pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds for the double-double, with Alexis Yackley dishing out a game-high six assists.
Next up on the three-game road trip for IPFW is a Summit League matchup with Centenary on Saturday, January 10, with tip-off slated for 1:00 PM EST.
~Dons~
