Iowa State women’s basketball buoyant, but bruised heading into Sweet 16

AMES — March Madness. It’s a special time of year where hearts and brackets aren’t the only things prone to breaking.

Just ask Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly — who will lead his buoyant, but bruised Cyclones into Friday’s 8:30 p.m. Sweet 16 game against Creighton in Greensboro, N.C.

“(Nyamer Diew) broke her nose, but she is good to go,” said Fennelly, whose team (28-6) already has posted a single-season program record for wins. “We have to put her in a mask.”

Diew’s not the only valuable bench player dealing with injury as the third-seeded Cyclones seek to advance to the Elite Eight for the first time since in 13 years. Post player Beatriz Jordao is coping with a rib issue suffered in ISU’s second-round win over Georgia that makes it hard to breathe.

“They think she’ll be OK to play,” Fennelly said. “We’ve just got to be very careful with it.”

Pain is part of a grueling season that’s spanned November and most of March. So are so-called “upsets,” even though there have been more in the women’s tournament than usual as No. 2 seeds Baylor and Iowa were among four top-four seeds to fall in the second round.

The 10th-seeded Bluejays (22-9), of course, notched the surprise win over the Hawkeyes, but Fennelly’s most impressed by how they play, regardless of the opponent.

“Very interchangeable parts offensively,” Fennelly said. “They run a lot of stuff. Stuff that's going to be very hard to guard. Something that we don't see a lot in the Big 12 — their style. They invert our offense. Their guards post up. Their big guys step away from the basket. Very efficient. Shoot the 3 a lot. And then defensively, really good quarter-court, man-to-man defense. Very personnel driven. So they've obviously played a really high level.”

Fennelly’s very familiar with longtime Bluejays head coach Jim Flanery, but not the team. The programs will meet for the first time since ISU secured a 63-59 win 14 years ago in Omaha.

“They do it right,” Fennelly said. “It's no surprise they are where they are.”

Same goes for the Cyclones, who struggled to subdue UT Arlington in the first round, but blew by the Bulldogs, 67-44, to advance to their first Sweet 16 since 2010.

All-time leading scorer Ashley Joens has scored 29 or more points in seven of the last nine games ISU’s played in the month of March. Sophomore point guard Emily Ryan has already set the program’s single-game and single-season assists record, and fellow sophomore Lexi Donarski is coming off a 20-point performance in the win over Georgia, but her biggest contributions come as a lockdown defender.

“When you get to this point in the season, defense wins you a lot of games,” said Ryan, who’s averaging 14.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 7.5 assists in the postseason. “So we're gonna have to focus on each individual person and then I'm taking away their strengths. And try and take advantage of that.”

Starting post Morgan Kane also will play a key role for the Cyclones. She’s coming off her best scoring performance (10 points) in the past five weeks, and needs to be at her best again with Diew and Jordao ailing.

“So excited,” Kane said. “Very first Sweet 16 for anyone on the team, so we’re all feeling that energy and momentum. Excited to carry that on to North Carolina.”

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