Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Iowa St
Wildcats Fall To A Tough Iowa State
11/30/1999 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 30, 1999
By CHUCK SCHOFFNER
AP Sports Writer
AMES, Iowa - Lulled to sleep by Northwestern's slowdown tactics, Iowa State needed a jolt. Erica Haugen found herself open in the corner and provided it.
Haugen's 3-point shot awakened the Cyclones and their fans and sparked a 21-2 run that carried No. 12 Iowa State to a 67-32 victory over Northwestern on Tuesday night.
The game-turning burst came after Northwestern had frustrated Iowa State (3-1) for 23 minutes by walking the ball up the floor and working the shot clock to almost zero before looking at the basket.
Northwestern (1-2) trailed just 26-19 with 17 minutes left and the crowd of 8,778 ? the Cyclones' largest ever for a regular-season game ? was getting restless.
But with some steals and turnovers, Iowa State got the tempo going its way and scored 14 straight points to break it open.
"In the second half, transition defense really hurt us," Wildcat coach June Olkowski said. "That's their game. They like to get out and run. Then we fouled them and they took advantage of it."
Tracy Gahan started the run with a putback and Haugen's 3-pointer from the right corner got the crowd into it. Megan Taylor converted a three-point play off transition to make it 38-19 and Stacy Frese finished the burst with a three-point play, stretching the lead to 47-21 with 9:54 to play.
Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said it was just a matter of forcing Northwestern into a hurry-up mode.
"I told them to chase the ball around and create tempo, make them pass the ball instead of standing out there dribbling for 20 seconds," he said. "We wanted to rush them. When we did, they rushed their shots a couple of times and threw the ball away a couple of times.
"We get a couple of baskets in transition and after that, they weren't going to be able to score enough."
Desiree Francis led Iowa State with 12 points. Frese had 10 points and seven assists and Cipinyte scored 10 on 5-for-9 shooting.
Leslie Schock led Northwestern with 13 points, all in the first half.
"I think Iowa State has a little more ammunition that we do," Olkowski said. "We tried to be selective with our ammunition."
That ploy worked for a while and kept the Wildcats in the game even though they rarely converted when they finally did shoot. Twice in the first half the shot clock expired before Northwestern released the ball. The Wildcats made only 8-of-19 shots in the opening half and seven of the misses were airballs.
It was 26-17 at halftime and Sears' only basket drew Northwestern to 26-19 with 18:01 remaining. But after Sears missed two free throws, Gahan made her rebound shot and the Cyclones had things their way from then on.
Northwestern will be back in action this weekend, hosting the Roger L. White Invitational at Welsh-Ryan Arena. On Friday, the Wildcats host Princeton in the second game of a doubleheader, following New Hampshire and Miami (Ohio) which tips off at 5 p.m. On Saturday, the consolation game will take place at 5 p.m. and the championship game will tip off around 7 p.m.
