Bridget Carleton, Iowa State women run past Kansas, 87-58

AMES - The Iowa State women's basketball team held fourth quarter leads in its first three league games only to watch them disappear.

The same wouldn't happen against Kansas.

Iowa State flew out to a 14-point first-quarter lead en route to an 87-58 win against Kansas for its first Big 12 win of the season.

The Cyclones (10-5, 1-3) never trailed and held the Jayhawks (6-9, 0-4) to four first-quarter points - the lowest point total in a quarter for an ISU opponent since Southern scored four on Dec. 6, 2015. Kansas was scoreless for the last five-plus minutes of the quarter, committed six turnovers in that span - 19 for the game - and shot 9 percent from the field.

'I think we just had really good communication on defense,” said forward Heather Bowe, who had an ISU career-high 16 points and 10 rebounds. 'In the backline, the guards were always bumping and I think it was a really good matchup. We just communicated well.”

Perhaps the biggest sense of relief came from Bridget Carleton's offensive uptick. After a lull in the last few games, she poured in 21 points on 6-for-9 shooting and was 7-of-7 from the free throw line. The sophomore guard added four rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal.

The inconsistencies, Carleton said, have come from hesitating if her first few shots don't find the bottom of the net. In the last week she's worked on some individual drills with assistant coach Jodi Steyer to open up her shooting capabilities and confidence.

It worked.

'(Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly) told me that he's going to stop telling me to shoot in 2 1/2 years when I'm not playing anymore,” Carleton said. 'He has confidence in me and tells me that every day.

'He's been really helpful and I've been in the gym shooting, so it's kind of nice to have it pay off in a game.”

Roughly five minutes later, Fennelly spoke with the media and expressed the same sentiment nearly word for word: the only time he would allow Carleton to stop shooting is when her ISU career is finished.

Seanna Johnson finished with 15 points and eight rebounds while Emily Durr (14) and Jadda Buckley (13) rounded out the Cyclones' double-figures scorers.

'I think probably besides the team winning, that collective exhale you heard in the building was Bridget making a shot,” Fennelly said. 'The kid has tried so hard and been in one of those funks that we get into. She's in the gym non-stop.”

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