Ashley Joens ‘outstanding’ as Iowa State takes Big 12 title

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Before the confetti swirled through venerable Municipal Auditorium for the last time, Iowa State women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly tried to slow down the championship moment in his mind.

It had been 22 years since the Cyclones had won a Big 12 tournament title and the emotional memories that accompanied his team’s dominant, 61-51, win over No. 15 Texas in Sunday’s championship game were hard to compartmentalize, let alone fully process.

“I think all of that stuff you start thinking about,” said Fennelly, who later beamed as his 3,000-point scoring senior star Ashley Joens accepted the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player Award. “Former players who did it. The memories I have of my parents and (his wife) Deb’s parents in Kansas City. The last time in this building.

“Somebody told me it will be the last Division I game ever played here. You just think about all the people who’ve allowed us to do this and the blessing that we have.”

That feeling of gratitude extends at least into next week. The Cyclones (22-9) will open NCAA tournament play as a No. 5 seed and will face the first team Fennelly led as a head coach, Toledo, Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn.

“It’s really exciting,” said Joens, who scored 28 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to notch her 64th career double-double. “We’ve got a lot of momentum going right now.”

Joens shined in her final three Big 12 games, averaging 26.7 points and 11.3 rebounds in ISU’s wins over Baylor, No. 14 Oklahoma and the Longhorns. She scored six straight points in the third quarter that broke a 33-33 tie and sparked a 23-8 run capped by Emily Ryan’s only basket — a 3-pointer with 5:10 remaining.

The Cyclones led, 56-41, at that point and maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the game.

“We’re playing together and we’re willing to fight and do whatever we need to win a game, which — if you look at the three games we played in the last three days, all of them were very different,” said ISU guard Lexi Donarski, who joined Joens on the all-tournament team. “We had to do different things, especially defensively, against all of those teams and we really just bought into it and bought into the game plan the coaches had given us.”

Donarski and center Morgan Kane chipped in nine points apiece for the Cyclones, who held Texas to 33.3 percent shooting and a 3-for-14 mark from beyond the arc. And several players contributed to that decisive second-half run, including Denae Fritz, who put-back her own miss to give ISU a five-point lead late in the third quarter, and Nyamer Diew, who sank a 3-pointer at the buzzer off an assist from Joens to make the score, 47-39, entering the fourth quarter.

“That was what we needed to get the win (each day),” Donarski said. “We didn’t have the same people that had great games every single game. Every single game we had different people step up.”

Especially Joens, but she had unlikely family company in terms of shooting success on Sunday. Her older sister, Courtney, was tabbed to take part in the halftime shooting contest and as time ran out, she sank a half-court shot to earn $6,600.

“I think she should give me 50 percent,” Joens said, joking. “Because I’m the only reason she’s here.”

Now the Cyclones move on after a historic win on multiple levels — and as Fennelly made his final postgame comments, he flicked one last piece of cardinal-colored confetti from his hair.

“Amazing,” he said. “Just to see the smiles on our kids' faces. It’s why you do this.”

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