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Saturday, Dec. 11 2:00pm ET
Welle powers Cyclones to victory | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
AMES, Iowa (AP) -- Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly stayed true to his word. Fennelly stood in front of his players before practice on Thursday and told them they had to get the ball to center Angie Welle against Iowa. On Saturday, the Cyclones (No. 10 ESPN/USA Today, No. 9 AP) did just that and Welle responded with 21 points and 11 rebounds as Iowa State beat the Hawkeyes 79-69. "She had it going today," Fennelly said. "I asked her a bunch of times, 'Are you tired?' and she kind of looked at me like, if you take me out, I'm going to squash you like a grape." Welle, a 6-foot-4 sophomore, had been shooting 64 percent but was averaging fewer than seven shots per game. Fennelly said she needed to get more than that and Welle ended up with 16 shots Saturday, making nine. "Every kid needs confidence from time to time, and I think when we told her in front of the team, 'We're going to throw you the ball, we trust you, we know you can do it,' " Fennelly said, "I think that kind of lifted her up a little bit and made her want the ball." Welle said she just took what the defense gave her. Iowa (3-4) concentrated on guard Stacy Frese and Iowa State's other outside shooters. Iowa State (5-2) took advantage by outscoring the Hawkeyes 46-20 in the paint and outrebounding them 47-33. "I don't really care if I'm scoring or Stacy or anybody else," Welle said. "It just worked out that way, that we were getting the ball inside. If that's what we're doing to do to win, that's what we're going to do. If it's going outside, that's what we're going to do." Frese, who had made 10 3-pointers and scored 34 points in a loss at Drake on Wednesday night, was held to four points in the first half and missed both her 3-point shots. But she made three 3-pointers in the second half and finished with 19 points. Megan Taylor added 11. Jerica Watson's 17 points led Iowa, which stayed close for more than a half by keeping Iowa State in a half-court game. But the Cyclones got their fast break going in the second half and used runs of 10-0 and 12-0 to pull away before a crowd of 13,271, the largest ever for a women's game at Iowa State's Hilton Coliseum. "I think in defensive transition, we didn't know our matchups," Iowa coach Angie Lee said. "There were a couple of times we just left them standing out there. You could see the kids after the bucket went in. They're going, who's got what, where are we at? "Anytime against an Iowa State you have a breakdown like that, you'll pay for it." Welle and Lindsey Wilson each converted three-point plays, and Welle had another basket in the first run, which stretched Iowa State's lead to 50-35. Iowa got the lead down to 56-47 on Cara Consuegra's jump shot, only to see the Cyclones take off again. This time, it was Frese leading the way with a pair of 3-pointers -- the first from the left wing on a pass from Desiree Francis and the second when she was left wide open on the right side. Welle, Francis and Taylor had layups in the spurt, which stretched the lead to 68-47 with 5:31 to play. Iowa State led by 21 points with a little more than 2 minutes left before Iowa closed the gap with three late 3-pointers. Conseugra and Lindsey Meder each scored 15 points for Iowa and Leah Magner had 13. But other than Watson's strong game, Iowa got almost nothing from its inside players. "That's really the story of the game," Lee said. "I don't think it's any secret out there that our inside is weak." | ALSO SEE Womens College Basketball Scoreboard
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