Cyclones sweep Kansas State with 57-33 win on Senior Night

AMES - Iowa State's Lauren Mansfield left the court all smiles, showered with a standing ovation.

And somewhere in the middle of the reveling 10,983 fans Wednesday on senior night at Hilton Coliseum stood her parents, Barry and Sue.

“It feels good now,” said Mansfield, who scored 13 points and doled out a game-high four assists to propel the Cyclones to a 57-33 shellacking of Big 12 rival Kansas State. “After we got the win we felt better. It was kind of relief. It felt good.”

Mansfield, a native Australian, shared the ovation's spotlight with fellow senior Chassidy Cole, who also left the game with 2:21 remaining and ISU's crucial ninth conference win in hand.

Cole played stringent defense on Wildcats leading scorer Brittany Chambers, who shot 1 of 7 from the field and scored four points while coughing up six turnovers.

“Chambers, that's certainly a kid that can change games,” said Cyclone coach Bill Fennelly, whose team improved to 18-10 overall and 9-8 in the Big 12. “We asked (Cole) to chase her and chase her and she did for 38 minutes.”

ISU assured itself a top-five conference finish and bolstered its case for a sixth straight NCAA tournament bid.

“I'd like to think we're a league that will go six or seven deep without the blink of an eye,” Wildcats coach Deb Patterson said.

Kansas State, which shot 28.9 percent, fell to 18-11 overall, 9-8 in the Big 12, and endured a sweep by the Cyclones for the second straight season.

“We couldn't have guarded them any better,” Fennelly said. “I thought we played hard and played well.”

Even with banged-up leading scorer and rebounder Chelsea Poppens limited to four points and seven boards in 17 foul-saddled minutes.

“Everyone else did something to make it better,” Fennelly said.

ISU's 21-6 run spanning parts of the first and second halves spelled doom for the Wildcats, who led 15-14 before the Cyclones got hot.

Mansfield stoked the spurt with a baseline drive and assist to Nikki Moody for a 3-pointer.

Moody, a freshman, went 3 of 4 from beyond the arc and finished with a game-high 15 points.

Hallie Christofferson added 14 points, including a pair of 3-pointers during the decisive run.

“We wanted to play well for our seniors,” Moody said.

That they did.

The seniors then thanked the crowd with post-win senior night speeches.

It's a tradition under Fennelly - and one that often ends in tears, hugs and cheers.

“Are they walking off the court better people than (when) they got here?” Fennelly said. “If the answer to that's no, I'm not doing my job.”