Iowa State women repeat men's feat, come back to beat Iowa

AMES — It's the last thing Iowa State works on at its pre-game shoot around.

A length-of-the-court pass isn't used for anything other than trying to set up a good look at a last second shot, but Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly knows it could mean the difference in a game.

Maybe now his players will start to understand more clearly why it's always on the practice agenda.

'We call it the 'three-second play' — real brilliant play call,' Fennelly said. 'Kidd's (Blaskowsky) got as good an arm as any quarterback or any baseball player I've ever seen. We run it the last thing and it worked perfectly.'

Freshman Meredith Burkhall hauled in the pass in wide-open space near the lane for an easy jumper to end the third quarter and help push Iowa State to a 69-66 win against No. 19 Iowa in Hilton Coliseum. The win extended Iowa State's regular-season non-conference home winning streak to 88 games.

Blaskowsky cross court pass to Burkhall for the buzzer beater at the end of the 3rd qtr. December 12, 2015

Blaskowsky cross court pass to Burkhall for the buzzer beater at the end of the 3rd qtr. #Cyclones https://t.co/lSwZ4koekH

— Cyclone Basketball (@CycloneWBB)

'I think they just took a lot of momentum from the end of the third quarter into it,' said Iowa coach Lisa Bluder. 'That really got the crowd into the game.'

The Cyclones (5-3) trailed by as much as 11 with 1:06 to play, but used a 14-1 run to take a 57-55 lead with 4:18 to play. Four ISU players played at least 38 minutes, but Fennelly saw a reenergized group heading into the fourth quarter after the hail mary pass gave the Cyclones a jolt.

'Coach talked about if you want to win you're going to win,' said Seanna Johnson, who had 22 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. 'You have to do everything you have to do just to win. I think as a whole we got in the huddle, we said, 'If you have to be dragged up the tunnel after the game that's what we're going to do, but give it your all.''

Johnson had 11 points, five rebounds and three assists in the fourth quarter while freshman Bridget Carleton had seven of her 11 points in the final period. Meredith Burkhall had 13 points and eight rebounds while Jadda Buckley finished with 12 points and six assists.

Ally Disterhoft had a game-high 26 points with eight rebounds, but the Hawkeyes (8-2) struggled to shoot down the stretch. Alexa Kastanek had 14 points to go with Chase Coley's 12-point output, but Iowa was 26.7 percent from the field in the fourth quarter and was 3-of-6 from the charity stripe.

'We need to be able to come out anywhere and compete at any time,' Disterhoft said. 'Obviously Hilton has a great atmosphere, but ISU players made plays at the end of the day. Never going to blame it on the atmosphere ever.'

The Cyclones bench outscored the Hawkeyes reserves 24-10 and helped Iowa State outrebound Iowa 41-34. The win also helped Iowa State improve to 10-0 at home against Iowa in Fennelly's tenure.

'It means a lot for us to win in Hilton,' Burkhall said, 'and it means a lot for us to win for each other and for our fans and make sure we take care of business here in Hilton and not let the Hawkeyes beat us here.'

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