Poppens, Cyclones surge past Texas in second half, 71-56

AMES - One good thing about foul trouble: It recharges the batteries.

And when not involuntarily bench-ridden in Saturday's Big 12 game against Texas, Iowa State's Chelsea Poppens simply kept going and going and going.

“Blue collar,” said Longhorns coach Gail Goestenkors. “The kid we all love.”

Poppens scored 18 of her career-high 27 points during a 30-11 run that turned a 40-40 tie into a 70-51 lead.

The Cyclones eventually won, 71-56, before an appreciative crowd of 11,517 at Hilton Coliseum.

“I don't know if I've ever seen a performance - unless it's in the NBA on TV - like what Chelsea Poppens did in the second half,” said ISU coach Bill Fennelly, whose team improved to 13-8 overall and 4-6 in conference play.

Poppens shrugged when asked about her 20-point, eight-rebound one-half effort.

“It's frustrating to be on the bench,” she explained. “You just want to get in there and make a difference.”

The junior from Aplington had plenty of help:

*Fellow forward Hallie Christofferson maintained her torrid pace from beyond the arc, drilling 5 of 8 3-point tries to finish with 17 points.

She's hit 14 of her last 25 shots from long range, or 56 percent.

“There's really nothing that I did different,” the sophomore from Hamlin said. “Just keep doing the same; just keep doing my thing.”

*Senior guard Lauren Mansfield saw her hot shooting trend interrupted (1-for-10), but dished out 11 assists to just one turnover.

She's averaged 7.7 assists in the past three games.

“We have 25 field goals and 23 assists,” Fennelly said. “If I was Chelsea Poppens, I'd be buying dinner for Lauren Mansfield.”

ISU's hungrily gobbled up wins since a rare 0-5 conference start, emerging victorious in four of five games.

“The true character of a person is (shown) when you've been kicked around a little bit,” Fennelly said.

Now the late kick's coming from the Cyclones.

Texas (13-9, 3-7) led 36-29 before ISU fully sprang to life.

Poppens sat for more than six minutes as her teammates forced six of the Longhorns' 23 turnovers during a 9-2 run.

“We played hard,” Goestenkors said. “We didn't play smart.”

Poppens returned at the 11:01 mark and 10 seconds later converted a layup off a pass from Brynn Williamson.

That put the Cyclones up 42-40 and they wouldn't trail again.

“The two things I'll say about Pop is she's a walking, breathing example of what can happen to you in life if you do things really hard,” Fennelly said. “And the other thing is she's such a great teammate. She's in foul trouble and she's the biggest cheerleader on the bench. She doesn't sulk. Then she goes into the game and just took over.”