Iowa State still sees plenty to work on after 9-2 non-conference mark

AMES — When Bill Fennelly travels to Davenport with his family to visit his parents, the basketball switch in his brain won't be turned off.

His laptop will surely be out as he reviews Iowa State's non-conference slate — the good, the bad and the ugly — before Big 12 play picks up in about a week.

'We'll be working. That's what we do,' Fennelly said after the Cyclones' 76-56 win against Sacred Heart on Wednesday night. 'It's family time, but Iowa State women's basketball is the family business and the family business never goes away.'

Iowa State (9-2) has plenty of positives to lean on with the production it's gotten from the big three of Seanna Johnson, Jadda Buckley and Bridget Carleton. As the Cyclones showed against the Pioneers (3-8), there won't be a lack of things to work on.

Sacred Heart struggled to get anything going in the first half as Iowa State used a 24-4 run to go up 30-8 — Sacred Heart shot 4-for-20 from the field until that point — and led 43-17 at halftime.

The second half wasn't as clean.

The Pioneers scored the first 10 points of the third quarter and forced 17 turnovers on the night. They got within 13 points midway through the third quarter, but went scoreless for the next three minutes as Iowa State pushed the lead back to 17.

Seanna Johnson had 20 points and 11 rebounds while Jadda Buckley added 13 points, five assists and four rebounds.

'I would say the first half looked like my wife and the second half looked like my sweater,' Fennelly said. 'We talked about staying focused until 8:30 or 9:00 and I think we might have left at halftime.'

'Our first half was pretty good, but we can't have a second half like that,' said Heather Bowe, who had nine points and 10 rebounds. 'Teams in the Big 12 are going to capitalize on that so we've just got to come out more focused and keep the pressure on then we'll do well.'

Through some defensive breakdowns and turnovers, Iowa State produced one of its best rebounding games of the season.

Johnson, Bowe and Meredith Burkhall (12) all had double-digit rebounds while Iowa State grabbed 62 boards to Sacred Heart's 30. The Cyclones also snagged 24 offensive rebounds for 24 second-chance points.

Iowa State has an eight-day layoff from games before going to Oklahoma State on Dec. 29.