Riley shoots down Cyclones at Big 12 Tourney

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Iowa State and the legion of fans who follow them here are headed home early from the Big 12 Tournament.

They and the Cyclones will be seeing Oklahoma State's Andrea Riley in their dreams. Actually, in their nightmares.

Riley set a four Big 12 records Friday with 43 points in the No. 7-seeded Cowgirls' 62-59 upset victory at Municipal Auditorium, marking only the second time in tournament history a No. 2 seed has failed to advance past the quarterfinals.

Riley was OSU's only offense, taking 44 of its 68 shots, in part because the still Alison Lacey-less Cyclones let her.

Some of them were difficult, but most of Riley's shots were uncontested coming off high screens.

“I take 100 percent responsibility for the game plan,” ISU Coach Bill Fennelly said. “You can write anything you want about how stupid it is. That's fine with me. That's the only chance we had to win the game. Our problem wasn't our defense. Offensively we just weren't very good.”

The Cyclones (23-7, 11-5) are finished because they hit only one-third of their field goal attempts, turned the ball over 18 times and couldn't get the right people shots down the stretch.

Riley was red-hot to start, terribly off-target in the middle and clutch at the close.

With the game tied at 50 with 5 ½ minutes to play, the senior guard took over.

She scored 10 of OSU's final 12 points, including an incredible driving one-handed shot over 6-7 ISU center Anna Prins with less than a minute left.

“I'm not scared to go in there,” said Riley, who took over as the Big 12's career (2,772) and single-season (846) scoring leader. “I've played against guys that are bigger and thicker when I was growing up.”

OSU coach Kurt Budke was fine with his star shouldering the load.

“I said if you shoot 50 shots and we lose that's OK,” Budke said, “but I betcha we win. We've won a lot of games with that young lady doing just that.”

Riley hit a pair of free throws with 8.6 seconds to play, forcing the Cyclones to hit a 3-pointer to force overtime.

But Whitney Williams misfired on an off-balance attempt and sealed ISU's first opening-game exit from the tournament in seven years. The Cyclones had reached the semifinals each of the last three.

“We just need to do a better job next time,” said second-leading scorer Kelsey Bolte, who was defended tightly all night and finished with just 12 points.

Prins led ISU with 15 to go with nine rebounds.

Williams had 11 points and four assists playing in place of Lacey, who missed her third straight game recovering from pneumonia. The senior point guard was in uniform and went through warm-up drills but was not cleared to play by team doctors.

She is expected back for the NCAA Tournament.

Friday's loss could have an effect on ISU's seeding. The Cyclones do know they will play at Hilton Coliseum March 21-23 if they are invited.

They showed heart in getting back into this one, rallying from 15 down in the first half.

OSU (23-9, 9-7) led 22-7 after a three-point play by Riley 10 ½ minutes before halftime. It managed only one basket the rest of the way and the Cyclones got to within 24-22 at the break.

Neither team led by more than five in the second half.

“They made a few more hustle plays than us when we had to have it,” Fennelly said.